Journal of Rare Disorders: Diagnosis & Therapy

Epileptic Pseudodementia by Antidepressants

The authors present a case of a patient who previously had depressions and that remains asymptomatic for several years, but after an uncontrolled increase of tricyclic antidepressant clomipramine, an important cognitive alteration appeared that remained even after removing the drug with which it was related. Frontotemporal dementia was diagnosed but we think that it could be a false dementia and postulate empirically that the activation of an irritative frontotemporal focus would be the cause of the cognitive interference. The possibility of a pseudodementia associated with irritative foci or "epileptic pseudodementia" has to be valued in order to alert clinicians given the importance that has the binomial diagnosis-prognosis in dementia. The authors know of no previous records of occurrence of a "dementia" diagnosed as such in neurology, and that really is caused by stimulation of a pre-existing epileptic irritative focus (pseudodementia).

Author(s):

Rojo-Moreno J, Valdemoro-Garcia C, Santolaya Ochando F and Rojo-Valdemoro C

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