SYMPTOMS OF PSYCHIATRIC DISTURBANCE IN EPILEPSY

To assess the severity and nature of symptoms of psychiatric distress among tertiary center epilepsy patients, we administered the Brief Sym ptom Inventory (BSI) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression S cale (CES-D) to adult patients evaluated at our tertiary center who we re diagnosed with Epilepsy (EPI; n = 37), or Chronic Lyme Disease (CLD , n = 38). We compared results in these groups to published studies in normal healthy adults (NHA) and psychiatric outpatients (Psych). Mean global BSI and CES-D scares were both markedly elevated in the EPI an d CLD groups compared to NHA but less than Psych. Subscores of the BSI varied among the EPI and CLD,stoups with higher obsessive compulsive symptoms among CLD patients (p=.014), higher paranoid symptoms in the EPI group (p=.021), and a trend toward higher somatization subscores i n the CLD group (p=.054). Symptoms of psychiatric distress including d epression are common among tertiary epilepsy tenter patients as well a s patients with CLD.