Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Epilepsy Associated: Does a Differential Neurologic Pattern Exist?

TERESA TORRALVA; SERGIO STREJILEVICH; MARIA ROCA; FACUNDO MANES ; ALFREDO THOMSON

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology; 2012; 2012

Objective: The goal of our study was to explore the neuropsychological profile of epileptic patients initially diagnosed as bipolar disorder patients, in order to establish it as a possible differential marker. Background The interictal dysphoric disorder has been frequently reported among epileptic patients, making it hard to clinically distinguish this syndrome from Mixed Episodes, hence leading to frequent diagnostic errors. The present study explored the cognitive profile of a group of patients affected with epilepsy that had previously been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, due to their depressive and manic symptoms, and treated as such with negative results. This group was compared to a group of patients with bipolar disorder and another group with classical epilepsy. Design/Methods: Patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD; n=17), epilepsy (EPI; n=12) and both disorders (EPI/BD; n= 13), matched for age, gender and education were assessed with a standard, comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Results: A significant difference between the three groups was exclusively found on the Trail Making Test - Part B (p = .01), with EPI/BD patients performance more poorly than BD and EPI patients. The performance of these two latter groups was statistically similar (p = .95). Conclusions: Among epileptic patients exhibiting manic depressive symptoms originally diagnosed and treated as the result of bipolar disorder, there seems to occur an additive detrimental effect particularly on executive functions relative to "pure" bipolar or epileptic patients.