COMORBIDITY BETWEEN TEMPORAL-LOBE SEIZURE AND BIPOLAR DISORDER - REPORT OF A CASE

A review of the literature shows that the coexistence of depressive di sorder or schizophrenia with a temporal lobe epilepsy occurs frequency . On the other hand, it is unusual to find an association with bipolar disorder. We report a case in which the bipolar disorder developed pr ior to the seizures and reapppeared after the surgical treatment of th e the epilepsy. During seizures activity, the expression of the bipola r disorder was stopped. Each seizure probably acted as an endogenous e lectroconvulsivotherapy. Carbamazepine which was continued during the post-surgical period could not prevent the clinical evolution of the b ipolar disorder. However, after 18 months of disease, the carbamazepin e was, in this case, a completely efficient normothymic.