Objective
@EN The diagnostic tools and treatment modalities for epilepsies are growing in recent years. Therefore many investigator are studying the relationship of epilepsy and psychopathology. These efforts are not only for the understanding of and
therapeutic
approach to psychiatric disorder in epileptic patients but also seeking the etiological basis of psychopathologies.
@ES Method
@EN 45 patients who were diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy by brain MRI and EEG etc were investigated, and offered psychiatric diagnosis. Also we took detailed psychiatric histories and investigated the characteristic features of psychiatric
disorders
in temporal lobe epilepsy.
We evaluated several variables, i.e. age, sex, duration of epilepsy, age at first seizure, age at onset of epilepsy, time between first seizure and onset of epilepsy, seizure frequency, history of febrile convulsions, history of clustering
seizures, and
laterality of focus of these 45 subjects.
Further investigations divided 45 subjects into a group without psychiatric disorder, a group with mood disorder and a group with psychotic disorder. And we compared those variables among these 3 groups.
Among 45 subjects, nine wee diagnosed as psychotic disorders, five were mood disorders, ad two were anxiety disorders. Among 9 subjects with psychotic disorders, six were diagnosed as psychotic disorder NOS, and the other were schizophrenia. And
they
manifested unique clinical features in relations to epileptic seizures. Among 5 subject with mood disorders, 4 subjects were diagnosed as dysthymia with chronic depression and 1 subject were major depression.
We compared all variables between the group without psychiatric disorder and the group with psychotic disorder however we can't find any statistically significant differences except one variable.
In the group with psychotic disorder. all subjects had the history of clustering of seizures in the rate of 100% of cases, but 54.6% of cases of the group without psychiatric disorder. The statistical difference was significant(p=0.016).
It is a preliminary study in this field in Korea. However this study will help to understand the various psychiatric symptoms of the patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and will help to promote further investigations in this field.
|