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Interictal Psychopathology in Epilepsy Prevalence and Pattern in a Nigerian Clinic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Oye Gureje
Oye Gureje*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, and University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria
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Abstract

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 per cent 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 5 , May 1991 , pp. 700 - 705
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1991 

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