Psychopathology in epilepsy: how great is the risk?

The relationship between epilepsy and psychiatric disorder in general and the relationship between epilepsy and psychosis in particular remain controversial issues of long standing. In order to reexamine these central issues concerned with epilepsy/psychopathology relationships, we utilized a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) sequential diagnostic system to reanalyze 87 published MMPI profiles of patients with epilepsy, other neurological disorders, and chronic physical illnesses encompassing a total of 2786 patients. We found that overall rates of psychopathology were not increased in epilepsy. However, when psychopathology was present, the level of psychosis was greatest in patients with epilepsy. The results are related to the larger literature concerned with the relationship between epilepsy and psychopathology.