Depression and Epilepsy: A Review of Multiple Facets of Their Close Relation

Depressive disorders are the most frequent psychiatric comorbidity in patients with epilepsy (PWE). Although they are typically considered a psychiatric disorder, ample data suggest that depressive disorders are a neurologic disorder with psychiatric clinical manifestations. Patients with epilepsy whose seizures originate in temporal and frontal lobes have the highest prevalence of comorbid depressive disorders. Not only are patients with epilepsy at higher risk of developing depression but also patients with depression are at higher risk of developing epilepsy. This article reviews these data, the clinical manifestations of depressive disorders in PWE, and their significant impact on the suicidal risk and quality of life.