Psychiatric assessment of candidates for epilepsy surgery.
Patients with medically intractable epilepsy often present with comorbid psychiatric diseases. When referred to a program for the surgical treatment of the epilepsies, these patients benefit from a pre-admission psychiatric assessment with a view to lessen the chances of a psychiatric crisis during the pre- and postoperative investigations. This article proposes a practical approach to the psychiatric assessment and monitoring of adult candidates to the surgery of epilepsy. It emphasizes, in agreement with a world literature review, that definitive psychiatric contraindications to this elective surgery are few, and that adverse long-term psychiatric outcomes are less frequent when good seizure outcome is achieved.
Savard
G
G
Department of Neurology, McGill University and Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, QC, Canada.
Manchanda
R
R
D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome