Epilepsy, mental health, adults with learning disability – reviewing the evidence

Abstract

Epilepsy, the experience of learning disability and the experience of mental health problems frequently occur in the same individual and can cause severe disadvantage, distress and vulnerability to the individual, together with a burden of care on families or carers. The challenges posed to clinicians include unpicking the complexities involved in understanding symptoms and presentations as well as the very limited evidence-based guiding management strategies. While evidence for service provision, care giving, and specific treatments is very limited, there are some themes that emerge from a review of the literature. The evidence that does exist indicates that the combination of these experiences is common, and attention must be paid to individual circumstances if one is to effectively understand and manage problems that arise. Certain clinical scenarios lead to specific treatment choices and the most popular anti-epileptic drugs prescribed seem to have both mood stabilizing and anti-epileptic effect profiles.