Epilepsy Patients More Likely to Exhibit Bipolar Disorder Symptoms

By Adam Modzelesky
EpilepsyUSA staff
Posted: November 15, 2005

People with epilepsy appear to be at an increased risk of developing bipolar disorder symptoms over others with chronic medical conditions, according to a recent study published in the medical journal Neurology.

Alan Ettinger, M.D., of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and a member of the Epilepsy Foundation's professional advisory board, was the study's lead researcher. He and his colleagues assessed the prevalence of bipolar symptoms in a community-based sample of 85,358 American adults by using the Mood Disorder Questionnaire.

The questionnaires arrived back with 1,236 people with epilepsy responding, 8,994 people with migraine, 7,951 with asthma, 7,342 people with diabetes and 57,172 with no ailments at all.

After thoroughly examining the data, the researchers discovered that 12 percent of the epilepsy patients showed signs of bipolar symptoms – approximately twice the amount of all the other disorders, and six times the amount of those with no illnesses at all.

"Our findings suggest that bipolar disorder symptoms and perhaps formal bipolar disorder may be significantly under-recognized in patients with epilepsy and patients with other chronic disorders," Ettinger said.

He continued by theorizing that a possible reason for the under-recognition of bipolar disorder in epilepsy patients may be because the anticonvulsant medications are treating the bipolar symptoms as well.

"The elevated rate of bipolar disorder symptoms in epilepsy may explain the commonly described vulnerability to mood instability in individuals with epilepsy," Ettinger said.