Psychiatric issues in epilepsy

In recent years there has been considerable research interest at the interface between epilepsy and psychiatry. Topics of interest include the epidemiology of psychiatric co-morbidity in epilepsy; clinical syndromes at this interface and their classification; the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and psychiatric co-morbidity; biological mechanisms that mediate such co-morbidity, especially with developments in imaging and genetic research; the association between temporal lobe surgery, vagus nerve stimulation, and other non-pharmacological treatments, and the development of such co-morbidity; the contribution of anticonvulsant drugs towards the development of psychiatric co-morbidity; quality of life and other psychosocial issues; and non-epileptic attack disorder. In this review, papers on these psychiatric issues in epilepsy, with a focus on those published in the past year (October 1999 to October 2000) are critically evaluated, and some important current issues at this interface are considered in detail.