Abstract
Psychiatric disorders can be identified in 25–50% of patients with epilepsy, with higher prevalence among patients with poorly controlled seizures. These disturbances include depression, anxiety, psychotic disorders, and cognitive and personality changes occurring in the interictal or periictal (preictal, ictal, postictal) states. We focus on four areas in patients with epilepsy: (1) more frequent comorbid psychiatric disorders, (2) integrated symptoms secondary to epilepsy, (3) stigma and psychosocial consequences of epilepsy, and (4) nonepileptic seizures. In this chapter, we will call attention to pertinent elements of the history in the patient with seizures, diagnostic workup, assessment of comorbidities, and consequences of treatment of the seizure disorder (including medications, resective surgery, and neuromodulation) and of the psychiatric comorbidity.