title: Psychiatric disorders comorbid with epilepsy in a prison sample.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Epilepsy is an extremely widespread and serious neurological disease. Although comorbidities of psychiatric disorders are prevalent in epilepsy patients, quite often this coexistence could be overlooked. Studies in this area demonstrated that depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia are the most common psychiatric disorders accompanying epilepsy. Mental health problems are known to be more common in prisoners compared to general population. The present study aims to demonstrate the psychiatric comorbidities in prisoners diagnosed with epilepsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, demographic data and the psychiatric comorbidity of 200 patients who were diagnosed with epilepsy by a neurologist at Ankara Penal Institution Campus State Hospital between January 2013 and January 2014 were analyzed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of study population was 32.6±10.1years. 181 of these patients were male (90.5%). 81 of 200 patients (40.5%) had a comorbid psychiatric disorder. The most common comorbid psychiatric disorders were depression (18.5%), anxiety (11%), and personality disorders (11%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common psychiatric comorbid disorders among prisoners diagnosed with epilepsy were depression and anxiety as general population with epilepsy whereas some disorders, personality disorder, substance dependence and bipolar affective disorders, were found to be more common among prisoners compared to the general population with epilepsy. It is crucial to question psychiatric symptoms and comorbidities while evaluating the patients with epilepsy, especially among prisoners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey. Electronic address: ercanaltinoz@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Ali Ercan
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Altınöz
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Olcay
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tosun Meriç
authors.affiliation: Eskişehir State Hospital, Psychiatry, Eskişehir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Şengül
authors.initials: Ş
authors.lastname: Tosun Altınöz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Altan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eşsizoğlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Behçet
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Coşar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Comorbidity; Epilepsy; Mental health; Prisoner