Seizures and schizophrenia

Abstract

Patients with epilepsy develop psychosis or schizophrenia at a rate exceeding that expected if the two disorders were independent. Similarly, patients with schizophrenia are more prone to seizures than the general population. This excess vulnerability may be conferred by the neuropathological substrate of schizophrenia itself or by the secondary effects of the illness, including exposure to psychotropic medications that lower the seizure threshold. Neuropathological investigations into the anatomic substrate of seizures in patients with psychosis or schizophrenia are consistent with the notion that there are neurodevelopmental abnormalities involving the mesial temporal lobe. Finally, clinical recommendations for the evaluation and pharmacological management of patients with schizophrenia who have one or more seizures are described.