Symptoms of epilepsy and organic brain dysfunctions in patients with acute, brief depression combined with other fluctuating psychiatric symptoms: a controlled study from an acute psychiatric department.

Abstract

In psychiatric acute departments some patients present with brief depressive periods accompanied with fluctuating arrays of other psychiatric symptoms like psychosis, panic or mania. For the purpose of the present study we call this condition Acute Unstable Depressive Syndrome (AUDS). The aims of the present study were to compare clinical signs of organic brain dysfunctions and epilepsy in patients with AUDS and Major Depressive Episode (MDE).
Out of 1038 consecutive patients admitted to a psychiatric acute ward, 16 patients with AUDS and 16 age- and gender-matched MDE patients were included in the study. Using standardized instruments and methods we recorded clinical data, EEG and MRI.
A history of epileptic seizures and pathologic EEG activity was more common in the AUDS group than in the MDE group (seizures, n = 6 vs. 0, p = 0.018; pathologic EEG activity, n = 8 vs. 1, p = 0.015). Five patients in the AUDS group were diagnosed as having epilepsy, whereas none of those with MDE had epilepsy (p = 0.043). There were no differences between the groups regarding pathological findings in neurological bedside examination and cerebral MRI investigation.
Compared to patients admitted with mood symptoms fulfilling DSM 4 criteria of a major depressive disorder, short-lasting atypical depressive symptoms seem to be associated with a high frequency of epileptic and pathologic EEG activity in patients admitted to psychiatric acute departments.
NCT00201474.

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BMC Psychiatry
Research article
Symptoms of epilepsy and organic brain dysfunctions in
patients with acute, brief depression combined with other
fluctuating psychiatric symptoms: a controlled study from an acute
psychiatric department
Arne E Vaaler*1,3, Gunnar Morken1,4,5, Olav M Linaker1,5, Trond Sand1,6,
Kjell A Kvistad2,7 and Geir Bråthen1,6
Address: 1Department of Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, 2Department of
Circulation and Diagnostic Imaging, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 3Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway,
4Division of Psychiatry, Department Østmarka, St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway, 5Division of Psychiatry, Department of
Research and Development, St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway, 6Department of neurology and clinical neurophysiology, St. Olavs
University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway and 7Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
Email: Arne E Vaaler* - arne.e.vaaler@ntnu.no; Gunnar Morken - gunnar.morken@ntnu.no; Olav M Linaker - olav.linaker@ntnu.no;
Trond Sand - trond.sand@ntnu.no; Kjell A Kvistad - kjell.arne.kvistad@stolav.no; Geir Bråthen - geir.brathen@ntnu.no
* Corresponding author
Abstract
Background: In psychiatric acute departments some patients present with brief depressive
periods accompanied with fluctuating arrays of other psychiatric symptoms like psychosis, panic or
mania. For the purpose of the present study we call this condition Acute Unstable Depressive
Syndrome (AUDS).
The aims of the present study were to compare clinical signs of organic brain dysfunctions and
epilepsy in patients with AUDS and Major Depressive Episode (MDE).
Methods: Out of 1038 consecutive patients admitted to a psychiatric acute ward, 16 patients with
AUDS and 16 age- and gender-matched MDE patients were included in the study. Using
standardized instruments and methods we recorded clinical data, EEG and MRI.
Results: A history of epileptic seizures and pathologic EEG activity was more common in the
AUDS group than in the MDE group (seizures, n = 6 vs. 0, p = 0.018; pathologic EEG activity, n =
8 vs. 1, p = 0.015). Five patients in the AUDS group were diagnosed as having epilepsy, whereas
none of those with MDE had epilepsy (p = 0.043). There were no differences between the groups
regarding pathological findings in neurological bedside examination and cerebral MRI investigation.
Conclusion: Compared to patients admitted with mood symptoms fulfilling DSM 4 criteria of a
major depressive disorder, short-lasting atypical depressive symptoms seem to be associated with
a high frequency of epileptic and pathologic EEG activity in patients admitted to psychiatric acute
departments.
Trial registration: NCT00201474
Published: 30 September 2009
BMC Psychiatry 2009, 9:63 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-63
Received: 14 May 2009
Accepted: 30 September 2009
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/63
© 2009 Vaaler et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Background
In psychiatric acute and intensive care units a limited
number of patients presents with brief depressive periods
accompanied by rapidly changing psychiatric symptoms.
These patients fail to meet current diagnostic criteria for
affective disorders and the optimal treatment is not estab-
lished. For the purpose of the present study we call this
condition Acute Unstable Depressive Syndrome (AUDS).
The specific criteria are described in the methods section.
The relationships between organic brain dysfunctions and
psychiatric disorders are complex [1,2]. Patients with epi-
lepsy suffer more frequently from psychiatric illnesses
than expected [3,4]. The most frequent symptoms are
those indicating affective disorders and depression [5].
Affective syndromes in the epileptic population may have
clinical presentations similar to affective syndromes in the
non-epileptic population [4]. However, affective syn-
dromes described in epileptic ictal, postictal or interictal
periods often tend to have an atypical presentation with
clinical features failing to meet current DSM-4 criteria [6]
for affective disorders [5,7]. The major divergences in
presentation are believed to be a brief duration of affective
symptoms, and an intermixture of the depressive or manic
periods with brief episodes of other psychiatric symptoms
like explosive irritability, delusions, confusion and anxi-
ety [8,9]. In a population of patients with pharmacoresist-
ant partial epilepsy, Kanner et al. found that in most
patients postictal psychiatric symptoms presented as a
"clustering of various symptom categories" [10]. Recur-
rent brief depressive episodes have been described as core
symptoms both in the presence of postictal dysphoria and
interictal, dysphoric disorder in epilepsy [11,12].
Studies of epilepsy or other organic brain dysfunctions in
psychiatric acute departments are sparse [12]. In an acute
psychiatric care hospital, Boutros et al. found that 10% of
consecutively referred inpatients had an epilepsy diagno-
sis [13]. Frequently, the history or presence of epilepsy
was not documented in the records, and there is reason to
assume that a history of convulsive disorders is often
under-reported in psychiatric departments [13]. Some
patients with epilepsy or other organic brain dysfunctions
who are admitted to psychiatric acute wards are described
as displaying fluctuating arrays of symptoms failing to fit
into current nosological systems [14,15].
In some groups of patients with affective syndromes,
treatment with traditional antidepressants in the absence
of an antiepileptic mood-stabiliser may induce cycle
acceleration [16,17]. Thus, recognition of organic brain
syndromes like epilepsy in acute wards is important and
may have short- and long-term therapeutic consequences
[18].
The main objective of the present study was to investigate
clinical signs of organic brain dysfunctions and epilepsy
in acutely admitted AUDS patients compared to sex- and
age-matched patients suffering from a Major Depressive
Episode (MDE).
Methods
The psychiatric department at St. Olavs University Hospi-
tal has a catchment area of 140.000 inhabitants. About
700 patients above 18 years with acute psychiatric condi-
tions are admitted each year. Norwegian acute psychiatric
services are public and available to everyone. All the
patients in the catchment area are admitted to this depart-
ment. Acute admissions to other psychiatric hospitals
occur only if inhabitants temporarily reside outside the
catchment area when the need for acute admittance arises.
All patients acutely admitted during three years were eval-
uated for inclusion. The evaluations were performed on
the first weekday after admission by experienced psychia-
trists (GM or AEV).
We used the following criteria for inclusion in the AUDS
group: a history of a rapidly developing psychiatric condi-
tion starting within the last 14 days. Within these 14 days
the patient had at different times shown symptoms that
met criteria for at least two Axis 1 diagnoses in the Diag-
nostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth
edition (DSM-4) (with exception of the time criterion)
[6]. One of these diagnoses should be a depressive epi-
sode (with exception of the time criterion) defined as a
score on the Montgomery and Aasberg Depression Rating
Scale (MADRS) ≥20 [19]. At least one of the following cri-
teria lead to exclusion: patients who had a psychiatric con-
dition due to direct effects of acute intoxication, had
dementia or mental disabilities to such a degree that
informed consent could not be obtained, had received a
diagnosis of unstable personality disorder with similar
symptoms at former admissions, or were unable to speak
English or Norwegian.
The control group consisted of acutely admitted sex- and
age-matched patients (+/- 5 years) meeting criteria
(MADRS ≥20) for a current Axis 1 major depressive epi-
sode (MDE) including the duration criterion of two weeks
[6]. After inclusion of a study group patient, the first
admitted patient meeting these criteria was recruited to
the control group.
Written consent was obtained from all the patients prior
to inclusion. The study has been performed in accordance
with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declara-
tion of Helsinki. The Regional Ethical Committee
approved the study.

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Assessments
Depressive symptoms were assessed with the observer
rated version of the MADRS on the first weekday after
admission. The MADRS has a scoring range 0-60 with
scorings > 20 indicating moderate and > 30 severe depres-
sion [20]. Alcohol and illicit drug use were assessed with
the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT)
[21], and the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV
(SCID-1) [22]. The AUDIT questionnaire consists of ten
items designed to identify patients with harmful alcohol
use [23]. It has a scoring range 0-40 with scorings ≥8 indi-
cating problem drinking. The questionnaire was adminis-
tered as interview. The AUDIT and SCID-1 were applied as
soon as the patients were able to co-operate. Urine and
blood samples taken at admittance were analyzed for cur-
rent drug use and medications.
The patients had three 30 minutes eyes closed EEG-vide-
ometry recordings at day 2, day 4-5 and day 8-10 after
admittance. The details of the methods for the EEG
recordings and the quantitative EEG (QEEG) results are
published previously [24]. All patients had an MRI-scan
with examinations performed at 1.5 T or 3 T magnetic
field strength. The image protocols consisted of at least
sagittal T1-weighted images, axial T2-weighted images,
coronal FLAIR images and axial diffusion weighted
images. In some cases an additional axial FLAIR-sequence
was added.
Finally, after discharge from the psychiatric acute ward,
the patients were referred to an experienced consultant in
Neurology (GB) who had access to both EEG and MRI
results from the present admission as well as all other
EEGs and MRIs in the medical records. The neurologist
was blinded for the grouping of the patients. He assessed
various signs of organic brain pathology from the clinical
examination, EEG or MRI examinations. Pathological
findings at clinical examination were divided into signifi-
cant (related to CNS pathology) and insignificant (e.g. a
weak reflex due to previous sciatica). In EEG only regional
or generalized slow activity or epileptiform activity was
considered pathological.
Statistical methods
Categorical group differences were tested with Fisher's
exact tests. EEG findings were categorised as normal, focal
slow, generalized slow, or epileptiform activity, allowing
for more than one pathological feature in each patient.
The number of patients with two or more pathological
features was compared using Fisher's exact test.
Results
In the study period 1038 patients with a total of 1984
admittances were evaluated for inclusion. Twenty-eight
(2.7%) fulfilled criteria for inclusion in the AUDS group.
Twelve were not included (due to non-consent, inability
to consent, or language problems). Sixteen patients
entered the study. The co-diagnoses in the AUDS group
(with exception of the time criteria) in this group were
DSM-IV 298.8 "brief psychotic disorder" (nine patients),
DSM-IV 300.1 "panic disorder" (four patients) and DSM-
IV 296.0 "single manic episode" (three patients). Both
groups consisted of six men and ten women with mean
ages 32.1 (SD 11.4) (AUDS) and 32.8 (SD 13.0) (MDE)
(p = 0.99). MADRS at entrance was 29.2 (SD 8.9) in the
AUDS group and 34.6 (SD 7.1) in the MDE group (p =
0.07).
Clinical background data at admittance to hospital prior
to inclusion are summarised in Table 1. Seven patients
from the AUDS group and none in the MDE group used
anti-epileptic drugs at admittance; four for epilepsy and
three for other indications. Three patients used lamotrig-
ine, one used valproate, while three used carbamazepine.
Six patients in the AUDS group and three patients in the
MDE group used benzodiazepines. The indications were
mainly anxiety and agitation. One patient from the MDE
group had used cannabis prior to admission. There were
no significant differences between the groups regarding
problem drinking as defined by AUDIT scores above 8.
Three of the MDE and none of the AUDS patients had
withdrawal symptoms judged by clinical observations at
the time of admission and through the first EEG record-
ing.
The clinical differences between the groups as judged by
the neurologist are summarised in Table 2. Eight patients
refused having a clinical neurological examination. There
were significant group differences in seizures in clinical
history and EEG pathology, and a significant difference
with regard to number of patients fulfilling clinical criteria
for epilepsy.
Out of the five patients fulfilling clinical criteria for epi-
lepsy, two had juvenile generalised epilepsy syndromes,
both with generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures and
absences. One had a syndrome of posttraumatic localisa-
tion-related epilepsy with nocturnal seizures presumed to
be secondarily generalized, and two had scattered GTCs
with a syndromic classification that remained undeter-
mined.
Two patients in each study group had pathological find-
ings on brain MRI. In the AUDS group, one had posttrau-
matic loss of substance from the right temporal and
frontal lobes, and the other had postoperative changes
from removal of a cerebellar astrocytoma many years ear-
lier. In the control group, one had an increased signal in

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pons that was interpreted as gliosis of ischemic origin. The
final patient had a megacisterna magna and a somewhat
uncommon appearance of vermis cerebelli.
At clinical neurological examination, three AUDS patients
and one control patient had signs of CNS pathology. One
AUDS patient had ophtalmoplegia and bilaterally
inverted plantar reflexes (positive Babinski's sign),
whereas another had inverted plantar reflexes as the only
sign of pathology. The third patient had bilateral horizon-
tal nystagmus. In the control group, there was a unilater-
ally inverted plantar reflex in one patient.
Most of the depressive periods in the AUDS group lasted
for a few hours up to a couple of days. Five patients (31%)
had very brief periods with serious affective symptoms,
including intense suicidal ideations, lasting less than one
hour. Their affective symptoms were agitation with panic
attacks, aggression towards others and suicide attempts.
Discussion
In the present study we compared two different groups of
patients that were acutely admitted to a psychiatric acute
ward with depressive symptoms. Our results indicate that
patients presenting with brief depressive periods and
coexisting fluctuating arrays of other psychiatric symp-
toms like psychosis, panic or mania, have epileptic activ-
ity more often than patients with pure major depressive
episodes.
The typical contemporary psychiatric acute department
patient often presents in severe crisis, complicated by sub-
Table 1: Clinical background data at admission to hospital prior to inclusion.
AUDS groupMDE groupp-value
n = 16 n = 16
Gender 6 (38%)6 (38%)1.00e
Mean age (SD)32.1 (11.4) 32.8 (13.0)0.99d
Anti-epileptic medication for epilepsy40 0.10e
Anti-epileptic medication other indications30 0.23e
Benzodiazepine medication63 0.43e
Problem drinkinga
4 b
4 c
1,00e
a The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) ≥ 8
b n = 15 c n = 13 d Mann-Whitney test e Fisher exact test
AUDS: Acute Unstable Depressive Syndrome
MDE: Major Depressive Episode
Table 2: Clinical differences between Acute Unstable Depressive Syndrome (AUDS) (n = 16) and Major Depressive Episode (n = 16)
groups.
Valid no.
AUDS
patients
MDE
patients
P value*
Seizures in clinical history32 6/160/16 0.018
Fulfilling clinical criteria for epilepsy32 5/16 0/16 0.043
Focal or generalized slow, or epileptiform EEG activity**32 8/161/16 0.015
Cerebral MRI pathology (any)262/13 2/131.0
Pathological findings at clinical neurological examination indicative of CNS pathology' 243/111/130.60
*Fisher exact tests.
**No of patients with ≥2 pathological features

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stance abuse, polypharmacy, behavioural dyscontrol and
multiple Axis 1 diagnoses [25]. The AUDS group patients
differ from these typical patients by presenting rapidly
changing different clusters of symptoms and having a
short duration of the depressive episodes. A psychiatric
clinical evaluation at admittance based on these clinical
aspects could enable the clinician to detect patients with
increased possibility of having epileptic activity. This is
important information when deciding which drugs to use
to rapidly tranquilize the patient. An antiepileptic mood
stabilizer or a benzodiazepine would be safe with respect
to the possibility of lowering the seizure threshold.
Many studies regarding epilepsy and psychiatric symp-
toms are population-based or stem from tertiary epilepsy
centres. The study samples have consisted of patients with
definite diagnoses of epilepsy in stable phases of their psy-
chiatric conditions. Despite the high prevalence of depres-
sion in epilepsy, the treatment remains "unexplored
territory" with a complete lack of double-blinded, placebo
controlled studies [26]. The clinicians must rely on data
available from studies of patients with primary mood dis-
orders [9]. In the treatment of depressive symptoms, one
important clinical decision is whether to use antidepres-
sants or antiepileptic mood-stabilizers [18]. In a patient
population from a tertiary epilepsy centre, Blumer argues
that conditions with similar symptoms as the AUDS
group require both antidepressant and antiepileptic med-
ication [12]. The majority of antidepressants do not
reduce the seizure threshold, and there is growing evi-
dence that many antidepressants have anticonvulsant
effects [27]. In the AUDS group the volatility of symptoms
and the obvious need for affective stabilization and con-
trol of behaviour are factors favouring the initial use of
fast acting antiepileptic mood-stabilizers, although empir-
ical confirmation of this assumption is needed. If prophy-
lactic long-term treatment is indicated, an antiepileptic
mood-stabiliser with effects both on the affective disorder
and the seizures is also a reasonable choice [28]. However,
empirical confirmation is again lacking. Empirically based
information about the best choices is much needed due to
the probably increasing number of patients suffering from
organic brain disorders who are admitted involuntarily to
acute and emergency services [29].
This study has a number of limitations. The patients were
recruited in daily, routine clinical practice at admittance
to the acute ward. It is difficult to imagine how a blinded
research design regarding inclusion could be applied in
such a setting. When in doubt whether criteria for inclu-
sion were fulfilled or not, both senior psychiatrists (GM
and AEV) did individual evaluations of the patients.
Patients were recruited when both psychiatrists found the
criteria to be fulfilled. The neurologist (GB), radiologist
(KAK) and neurophysiologist (TS) were all blinded for
patients' group allocations.
The groups were composed of patients with substance
abuse, withdrawal symptoms, and medication with antie-
pileptic drugs or benzodiazepines. These factors affect the
expression of symptoms as well as EEG interpretations. To
obtain a more naturalistic study, we chose not to exclude
patients with substance use diagnoses due to the substan-
tial number of patients in acute departments with these
conditions [30]. More patients in the AUDS group than in
the MDE group used antiepileptic drugs or benzodi-
azepines at admittance. These medications may have
decreased the pathological findings in EEG recordings and
stabilised clinical symptoms. Thus, potential EEG pathol-
ogy may have been masked to a greater extent in the
AUDS group than in the MDE group.
There are several strengths of the study. First of all this is a
prospective study of a naturalistic patient population
from a defined catchment area. All patients admitted in a
three year period were evaluated for inclusion. We used
robust validated instruments assessing diagnoses, symp-
toms of depression and alcohol abuse. All patients had
urine and blood screens, assessing substance abuse and
medication, and EEG was performed shortly after admit-
tance.
The small number of subjects leading to relatively weak
statistical power could be held against the study. The
results that several indicators of brain pathology still
reached statistical significance may indicate a fairly strong
association between organic brain syndromes, epilepsy
and the AUDS clinical picture.
We have called our study group AUDS, pinpointing the
acute and unstable, depressive core symptoms. Patients
displaying similar symptoms have been described in the
literature with different names like "masked epilepsy",
"temporal lobe syndrome", "interictal dysphoric disor-
der", and "subictal dysphoric disorder" [12]. These names
are applied to describe conditions characterised by sei-
zures or dysfunctions presumably originating in or prima-
rily involving mesial temporal limbic structures. Thus, a
close collaboration between neurologists and psychia-
trists in the evaluation and management of these patients
is appropriate. However, such collaboration is rarely
encountered, even in tertiary epilepsy centres [31], and
even less in psychiatric acute wards and psychiatric inten-
sive care units. Adequate treatment and evaluation of peo-
ple with psychiatric conditions require that neurological
conditions are recognised and incorporated into the over-
all treatment.
Conclusion
Patients in psychiatric acute departments presenting
symptoms characterised by acute, brief depression com-
bined with other fluctuating psychiatric symptoms, have
more seizures in clinical history, and more focal, general-

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ized slow, or epileptiform activity compared to sex and
age matched patients acutely admitted with Major Depres-
sive Episodes.
Competing interests
Dr Morken has received a travel grant from Astra Zeneca,
but none of the authors have any financial interests or
other potential conflicts of interest.
The study received funding from Glaxo SmithKline (GSK).
Authors' contributions
AEV, GM, OML and GB conceived, designed, and coordi-
nated the study, examined and included the patients and
helped to draft the manuscript. TS planned and super-
vised the EEG procedures and interpreted the EEGs. KAK
planned and supervised the MRI procedures and inter-
preted the MRIs. All authors read and approved the final
manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Trond Oskar Aamo, MD, Department of Clinical Phar-
macology, St. Olavs Hospital for toxicological screens and continued coop-
eration.
The main funding came from the Research Council of Norway, St Olavs
University Hospital and The Norwegian University of Science and Technol-
ogy. GSK supported the study by financing the extra EEGs. GSK had no role
in conceiving, designing, and coordinating the study.
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Pre-publication history
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed
here:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/63/pre
pub