Use of psychotropics in special patient groups Depression and psychosis in epilepsy

The prevalence of clinical depression in people with epilepsy is reported to range from 9% to 22% 1,2 and depressive symptoms may occur in up to 60% of people with intractable epilepsy 3 . This association may be explained in part by serotonin; depletion increases the risk of both depression and epilepsy 4 . Suicide rates in epilepsy have been estimated to be 4-5 times that of the general population 1,2 . The prevalence of psychotic illness in people with epilepsy is at least 4% 4 . A diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy does not seem to confer additional risk 5 .