Open Access

Psychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with epilepsy (A systematic review)

  • Authors:
    • Raluca Simona Gurgu
    • Adela Magdalena Ciobanu
    • Roxana Ionela Danasel
    • Cristina Aura Panea
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: June 28, 2021     https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.10341
  • Article Number: 909
  • Copyright: © Gurgu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

Metrics: Total Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )
Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )


Abstract

The co‑occurrence of epilepsy and psychiatric disorders is long known. The scope of this systematic review was to describe the prevalence of specific interictal psychiatric disorders in patients with epilepsy and to assess possible associations between psychiatric disorders and other sociodemographic or clinical characteristics of epilepsy patients. MEDLINE and ScienceDirect were searched for original articles published between January 2015 and February 2021 describing studies that involved epilepsy patients with psychiatric comorbidities. We identified 13 studies with heterogenous methodology and reporting. Prevalence of any psychiatric disorder observed was up to 51% in idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), up to 43.1% in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and up to 43.3% in a general population of patients with epilepsy. The most frequent psychiatric comorbidities associated with epilepsy included mood/affective disorders (up to 40% for lifetime occurrence and up to 23% for current occurrence), anxiety disorders (up to 30.8% for lifetime occurrence and up to 15.6% for current occurrence), personality disorders [up to 11% in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME)] and psychotic disorders (up to 4% of epilepsy patients). In focal epilepsy, depressive disorders might be associated with specific brain imaging findings and with cognitive impairment. Anxiety disorders are associated with a higher frequency of generalized tonico‑clonic seizure (GTCS) and with worse social functioning. Psychotic disorders were found to be associated with longer duration of epilepsy. Childhood maltreatment experiences were found to be a powerful predictor for the occurrence of psychiatric comorbidities in epilepsy patients, while data regarding association of other epilepsy characteristics with the presence of psychiatric disorders is conflicting.
View Figures
View References

Related Articles

Journal Cover

August-2021
Volume 22 Issue 2

Print ISSN: 1792-0981
Online ISSN:1792-1015

Sign up for eToc alerts

Recommend to Library

Copy and paste a formatted citation
x
Spandidos Publications style
Gurgu RS, Ciobanu AM, Danasel RI and Panea CA: Psychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with epilepsy (A systematic review). Exp Ther Med 22: 909, 2021
APA
Gurgu, R.S., Ciobanu, A.M., Danasel, R.I., & Panea, C.A. (2021). Psychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with epilepsy (A systematic review). Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 22, 909. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.10341
MLA
Gurgu, R. S., Ciobanu, A. M., Danasel, R. I., Panea, C. A."Psychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with epilepsy (A systematic review)". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 22.2 (2021): 909.
Chicago
Gurgu, R. S., Ciobanu, A. M., Danasel, R. I., Panea, C. A."Psychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with epilepsy (A systematic review)". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 22, no. 2 (2021): 909. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.10341