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Epilepsy and Psychiatric Disturbance

A Cross-sectional Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ebe Fiordelli ,
Ettore Beghi ,
Graziella Bogliun  and
Vittorio Crespi
Ebe Fiordelli
Affiliation:
Centro Regionale per l'Epilessia and Clinica Neurologica, Ospedale San Gerardo, Monza (Milan), and Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan
Ettore Beghi*
Affiliation:
Centro Regionale per l'Epilessia and Clinica Neurologica, Ospedale San Gerardo, Monza (Milan), and Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan
Graziella Bogliun
Affiliation:
Centro Regionale per l'Epilessia and Clinica Neurologica, Ospedale San Gerardo, Monza (Milan), and Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan
Vittorio Crespi
Affiliation:
Centro Regionale per l'Epilessia and Clinica Neurologica, Ospedale San Gerardo, Monza
*
∗Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy
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Abstract

One hundred patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and normal intelligence and 100 age- and sex-matched controls were submitted to psychiatric interview using the Clinical Interview Schedule. Nineteen patients and 15 controls were identified as having psychiatric disorders. Anxiety and depression were the predominating diagnoses in both groups. Personality disorders were occasionally present in subjects with epilepsy. The study shows that patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and normal neuropsychological abilities should not be considered at any higher risk of psychiatric disturbance than a non-neurological patient population.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 446 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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