Psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy: A study comparing patients with mesial temporal sclerosis and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

We evaluated the frequency of psychiatric disorders (PDs) in a homogenous series of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis (TLE-MTS), as compared with patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), aiming to determine possible differences in psychiatric diagnoses between these two epileptic syndromes. Data from 170 patients with refractory TLE-MTS and from 100 patients with JME were reviewed and compared. The prevalence of PDs was high in both groups of patients with epilepsy: PDs were present in 85 patients with TLE-MTS (50%) and 49 patients with JME (49%). Among the TLE-MTS group, mood (25.8%), psychotic (15.8%), and anxiety (14.1%) disorders were the most frequent diagnoses, whereas anxiety and mood disorders (23 and 19%, respectively) were the most common among patients with JME. Psychoses were significantly associated with MTS (P < 0.01) and anxiety disorders with JME (P < 0.05). These findings suggest the existence of an anatomic correlation between PDs and brain structures involved in both epilepsy syndromes.