TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychiatric comorbidities in new onset epilepsy
T2 - Should they be always investigated?
AU - Kanner, Andres M.
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - The new definition of epilepsy establishes that epilepsy is not only a disorder presenting with epileptic seizures but it can be often associated with cognitive and psychiatric comorbidities. In fact, the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities is relatively high in patients with epilepsy (PWE), as one in three patients will have experienced a psychiatric disorder in the course of their life, with mood and anxiety disorders being the most frequent. Psychiatric comorbidities often precede the onset of the seizure disorder, and affect the life of these patients and the course of the seizure disorder at several levels, including a worse tolerance of pharmacotherapy with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), in particular the development of iatrogenic psychiatric symptoms from pharmacologic and surgical treatments, an increased mortality risk, a worse quality of life and higher economic burdens of the patient, family and society as a hole. Accordingly, psychiatric comorbidities should be recognized at the time of the initial evaluation of every PWE and their treatment needs to be incorporated within the overall therapeutic plan. This question is addressed in this article.
AB - The new definition of epilepsy establishes that epilepsy is not only a disorder presenting with epileptic seizures but it can be often associated with cognitive and psychiatric comorbidities. In fact, the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities is relatively high in patients with epilepsy (PWE), as one in three patients will have experienced a psychiatric disorder in the course of their life, with mood and anxiety disorders being the most frequent. Psychiatric comorbidities often precede the onset of the seizure disorder, and affect the life of these patients and the course of the seizure disorder at several levels, including a worse tolerance of pharmacotherapy with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), in particular the development of iatrogenic psychiatric symptoms from pharmacologic and surgical treatments, an increased mortality risk, a worse quality of life and higher economic burdens of the patient, family and society as a hole. Accordingly, psychiatric comorbidities should be recognized at the time of the initial evaluation of every PWE and their treatment needs to be incorporated within the overall therapeutic plan. This question is addressed in this article.
KW - Antiepileptic drugs
KW - Attention deficit disorder
KW - Generalized anxiety disorder
KW - Major depressive disorder
KW - Quality of life
KW - Temporal lobe epilepsy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019951539&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.seizure.2017.04.007
DO - 10.1016/j.seizure.2017.04.007
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28532711
AN - SCOPUS:85019951539
VL - 49
SP - 79
EP - 82
JO - Seizure : the journal of the British Epilepsy Association
JF - Seizure : the journal of the British Epilepsy Association
SN - 1059-1311
ER -