Psychiatric morbidity in refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy before and after epilepsy surgery

Abstract Background & Objective: Psychiatric disorders constitute a large part of illness burden in patients with refractory epilepsy. A careful presurgical psychiatric assessment is now an integral part of evaluation in most centers performing surgeries for refractory epilepsy. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and outcome of the psychopathology in patients of refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) before and after epilepsy surgery. Method: Forty eight patients diagnosed as having refractory mTLE by the Neurologists were included in the study. The patients were assessed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) before surgery as well as in the second and sixth month of postoperative period. Results: More than half of the patients (54%) had psychopathology. Depressive disorders were more common. Lateralisation of focus in MTS and psychopathology in the patient revealed equal right and left preponderance. No significant difference was found on BPRS, BDI and HDRS scales at 2 and 6 months follow up post epilepsy surgery in patients having psychopathology. Conclusions: Patients had a favourable outcome after surgery as regards to their psychopathology as well as the seizures