Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Bidirectional Relationship Between Schizophrenia and Epilepsy, Study Finds



Researchers from Taiwan have confirmed a bidirectional relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy. The study published in Epilepsia, a journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), reports that patients with epilepsy were nearly 8 times more likely to develop schizophrenia and those with schizophrenia were close to 6 times more likely to develop epilepsy.

Prior clinical studies have shown a prevalence of psychosis among epilepsy patients and studies of psychiatric illness have found a strong relationship between schizophrenia and epilepsy, suggesting a shared susceptibility between the diseases that may be a result of genetic, environmental or neurobiological causes. While a number of studies have established a bidirectional relationship between depression, mood disorder and epilepsy, the current study is the first to investigate this type of relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy.

"Our research results show a strong bidirectional relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy," said lead author I-Ching Chou, M.D., with China Medical University Hospital and Associate Professor with China Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan. "This relationship may be due to common pathogenesis in these diseases such as genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, but further investigation of the pathological mechanisms are needed."

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919074244.htm

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