Interictal psychopathology in epilepsy. Prevalence and pattern in a Nigerian clinic

An unselected sample of 204 epileptic patients attending a neurological out-patient clinic in Abeokuta, Nigeria, was evaluated for psychiatric morbidity using the CIS. Thirty-seven percent emerged as psychiatric cases, almost a third of these being cases of psychosis. Patients with partial seizure of temporal lobe origin were the most psychiatrically impaired, while those with partial seizure of non-temporal lobe origin the least. These findings are broadly similar to those reported for epileptic populations in other studies. However, in spite of the relatively high prevalence of major psychiatric disorders among these patients, their impairments were more likely to remain 'hidden' and untreated than those in similar patients in developed countries.