Interictal psychosis of epilepsy: What is the role of the neurologist?

Abstract

Psychotic disorders are more frequent in people with epilepsy than the general population. They constitute one of the most serious psychiatric comorbidities which require an immediate psychopharmacologic intervention. Yet, access to psychiatrists is often limited or not available and the neurologists taking care of these patients are called-upon to start treatment with antipsychotic medication. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide clinicians with pragmatic psychopharmacologic strategies to treat interictal psychotic disorders in patients with epilepsy. We review the case of a 45 years-old man with a 35-year history of treatment-resistant focal epilepsy of bitemporal origin who developed a de-novo psychotic episode that began with insomnia, mood lability and agitation and evolved into paranoid delusions, auditory hallucinations and a thought disorder. The patient was diagnosed with an interictal psychotic episode and was treated with aripiprazole which resulted in significant improvement after reaching a 20 mg /day dose and allowed for the patient to be discharged home. In summary, interictal psychotic episodes of epilepsy are relatively frequent in patients with epilepsy and require of an early psychopharmacologic treatment to facilitate their remission or stabilization until mental health professionals can take over their long-term care. Compared to primary psychotic disorders, interictal psychotic episodes respond better and at lower doses of antipsychotic drugs.