Psychiatric comorbidity in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy
Eugen Trinka1, Gudrun Kienpointner, Iris Unterberger
1Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria. eugen.trinka@uklibk.ac.at
Objective:
To assess the prevalence of psychiatric disturbances among patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME).
Methods:
Forty-three patients with JME (22 female, 21 male, mean age 32.4+/-13, range 15-63) were assessed by means of the Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-IV (SCID-I and SCID-II). Current and lifetime psychiatric diagnoses were assigned.
Results:
Thirty-five percent of the JME patients suffered from one or more psychiatric disorders (Axis I and Axis II). Personality disorders were present in 23% and Axis I disorders in 19%. Altogether, 47% had a psychiatric disorder at any time of their life.
Conclusions:
Psychiatric diagnoses are slightly higher than in representative community samples. The substantially increased number of personality disorders in JME patients might be attributed to frontal lobe deficits.
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