Which Came First, the Seizure or the Psychiatric Disorder?

Because the timing can go either way, a common mechanism might underlie both.

Psychiatric disorders are significantly associated with epilepsy, but the temporal nature of the relationship has been difficult to study. In this population-based, case-control study, researchers used 8 years of data from several registries in Stockholm to examine the occurrence of psychiatric disorders before and after seizures. Participants were 1885 case patients with epilepsy (758 with a single unprovoked seizure; 1127 with recurrent seizures) and 15,080 controls (a 1:8 ratio), matched to cases by sex and by Stockholm residency in year of seizure diagnosis. Most seizures had focal onset (66%) and an idiopathic/cryptogenic etiology (58%).

Discharge psychiatric diagnoses were identified in 3.7% of cases and 1.4% of controls. The age-adjus…

Reviewing Author

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)

Jonathan Silver, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Which Came First, the Seizure or the Psychiatric Disorder?

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Reviewing Author