[Suicide in epileptic patients]

Suicide and attempted suicide occur with above-average frequency in patients with epilepsy. The proportion of suicide in the overall mortality of epilepsy patients is about 8% and thus about four times more frequent than in the general population. Affective disorders may be contemporaneous with epileptic attacks, or they may occur interictally. The affective disorders leading to suicide may be caused reactively, pharmacogenically, or by the epileptic function disorder itself or by an underlying cerebral disease. For prophylaxis of suicide, it is especially important to be informed about pharmacogenic depressive moods, which evidently occur above all in phenobarbital treatment. Rapid help is often possible by change of medication. Otherwise, the rules of therapy in epilepsy patients in danger of suicide correspond to those of crisis intervention in suicidal individuals in general.