Common comorbidity of epilepsy: a review of new progress

A range of medical and neurologic disorders occurs more frequently in people with epilepsy than in the general population and constitutes somatic comorbidity. Common examples include migraine, depression, schizophrenia, attention ⁃ deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep disorder, cognitive damage, developmental abnormality and so on. There are more interesting clinical features in some special types of patients with benign epilepsy of childhood with centrotemporal spikes (BECT), temporal epilepsy and mitochondrial encephalomyopathy. The association between epilepsy and other conditions can be due to a variety of interacting genetic, biologic structural, functional, pharmacological and environmental factors. Co⁃existence of other disorders in a person with epilepsy can complicate diagnosis, induce adverse prognostic implications and attenuate health⁃related quality of life. Therefore, recognition and management of comorbidity of epilepsy may facilitate the treatment of epilepsy. In this article, we review recent pathophysiologic and clinical studies to elucidate the etiology, mechanisms, clinical characteristics, differential diagnosis and treatment of common comorbidity of epilepsy.