Seizures are among the most common causes of
apparent life-threatening events. There are discrepancies among the published reports on the correlation between
epilepsy/
febrile seizures and deficiency or overload of
trace elements. The objective of this review and meta-analysis was to examine the present knowledge on the concentrations of the most investigated trace metals, including
zinc,
copper,
selenium, and
magnesium, in patients with
epilepsy and
febrile seizures. The PubMed and Scopus databases were searched to identify case-control studies that compared the concentration of
zinc,
copper,
magnesium, and
selenium in serum, hair, or cerebrospinal fluid between patients with
epilepsy/
febrile seizures and controls. A total of 60 articles were included in the present study (40 pertaining to
epilepsy and 25 pertaining to
febrile seizures). The serum concentration of
zinc in nontreated patients with
epilepsy was significantly higher than in controls (P = 0.034). There were significantly reduced serum concentrations of
zinc (P = 0.018) and
selenium (P = 0.012) in patients with
febrile seizures compared with controls. The concentrations of
copper,
magnesium, and
zinc were all significantly altered in patients with
epilepsy who received
antiepileptic drugs compared with untreated patients with
epilepsy. Designing treatments to selectively restore
zinc levels may be a strategy for treating patients with
epilepsy. It is still unclear whether these
ions are causal to, or a cofactor in, the development of
epilepsy. Knowledge of the effects of various
antiepileptic drugs on
trace element homeostasis could potentially be used to effectively guide appropriate therapeutic strategies in the future.