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Psychiatric Assessment of Candidates for Epilepsy Surgery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

G. Savard
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, and Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, and Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, QC., H3A2B4
R. Manchanda
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, and Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, and Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, QC., H3A2B4
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Abstract

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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.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2000

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