Treatment of Comorbid Anxiety and Epilepsy

Anxiety and school avoidance in an 8-year-old child with epilepsy

“…Although the evidence base is low, it is intuitive to use an ASM for psychiatric comorbidity in epilepsy, particularly if complementary mechanisms may improve seizures and psychiatric symptoms simultaneously [29] . Some of the most robust findings for ASMs in treating anxiety include lamotrigine and clobazam [30] . Although risks and benefits would need to be considered, in Abby’s case, improving seizure control would be an important goal and suggests that adjunctive ASMs with the added benefit of improving anxiety symptoms would be preferred options.…”