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Seizure 2021 Mar 23;88:78-82. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

Department of Psychiatry, Hospital das Clínicas, University of São Paulo Medical School (IPq/HCFMUSP), Brazil.

Purpose: It is established that the severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms is associated with poorer quality of life (QOL) in persons with drug-resistant epilepsy. We aimed to verify the presence of subsyndromic depressive episodes (SDEs) and subsyndromic anxiety episodes (SAEs) in persons with temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS) compared to healthy controls and to determine the impact of depressive and anxiety symptoms on patients' QOL.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 35 persons with TLE-HS and 90 healthy controls. Read More

Brain Topogr 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Department of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece.

Language fMRI has become an integral part of the planning process in brain surgery. However, fMRI may suffer from confounding factors both on the patient side, as well as on the provider side. In this study, we investigate how patient-related confounds affect the ability of the patient to perform language fMRI tasks (feasibility), the task sensitivity from an image contrast point of view, and the anatomical specificity of expressive and receptive language fMRI protocols. Read More

Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2021 Mar 19;311:111281. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Pedro de Toledo Street, 650, 1st floor. Postal number: 04039-002 Vila Clementino, São Paulo, Brazil.

Depression is the most frequent psychiatric comorbidity in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and hippocampal sclerosis (HS). This study aimed to confirm whether patients with comorbid depression have different volumetric patterns on magnetic resonance imaging, analysing the influence of HS sides. Psychiatrists conducted semi-structured interviews with 75 patients, who were divided into non-depression group (NDG, n = 52) and depression group (DG, n = 23), and compared with 98 controls. Read More

Neuroscience 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany. Electronic address:

Experimental and clinical data suggest an impact of serotonergic signaling on seizure susceptibility and epilepsy-associated psychiatric comorbidities. Previous µPET studies revealed increased binding of 5-HT receptor ligand [F]MPPF in two rat models with spontaneous recurrent seizures. These findings raised the question whether these alterations are due to altered 5-HT receptor expression or a modification of extracellular serotonin concentrations. Read More

J Clin Neurol 2021 Apr;17(2):176-186

Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Background And Purpose: Mental illness is disproportionately common in people with epilepsy (PWE). This systematic literature review identified original research articles that reported the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities based upon clinical assessments in a sample of PWE and assessed the clinical features of the populations found in studies included in our review of mental health comorbidity.

Methods: The included articles were written in English and published from 2008 to 2018, and focused on adults aged ≥18 years who had psychiatric diagnoses determined in clinical assessments, such as those found in medical records, clinician psychiatric evaluations, structured diagnostic interviews, and mental health screening questionnaires specific for a psychiatric disorder. Read More