PMID: 25742040Mar 6, 2015Paper

Anxiety disorder due to epilepsy: a case report

Türk psikiyatri dergisi = Turkish journal of psychiatry
Gonca ÖzyurtAyşegül Özerdem

Abstract

Epileptic patients present with psychiatric disorders more frequently than the general population and patients with other chronic medical conditions. Psychiatric disorders can co-occur with epilepsy and can be caused by epilepsy. Personality changes, as well as psychosis, and mood or anxiety disorders can occur in association with epilepsy. Anxiety disorders due to epilepsy can manifest as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. The risk of an anxiety disorder is higher in patients with focal epilepsy, especially those with temporal lobe epilepsy, but an anxiety disorder can also occur in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy or generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy. Herein we present a 41-year-old female patient with comorbid anxiety disorder and epilepsy that improved following initiation of antiepileptic medication. The patient's EEG showed abnormalities, particularly in the frontal lobe. Epileptic activation-associated anxiety disorder presented as phobia of swallowing and the patient exhibited features of generalized anxiety disorder. Following initiation of antiepileptic medication, the seizures stopped and the symptoms of anxiety disappeared in two weeks. The patient was receivi...Continue Reading

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