Common pathogenic mechanisms between depression and epilepsy: an experimental perspective.

Affective disorders and the epilepsies appear to share partially similar pathogenic mechanisms. Predisposition to both disorders is determined genetically and experientially. A component of the shared predisposition appears to arise from noradrenergic and serotonergic deficits. Shared GABAergic deficits coupled with CRHergic and glutamatergic excesses may trigger and maintain seizures as well as dysfunctional affective episodes, albeit via dissimilar neuronal interplay.