Depression in temporal lobe epilepsy surgery patients: An FDG-PET study

Abstract

Purpose: Depression is common in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and after temporal lobectomy, and its etiology is obscure. In nonepileptic depression (including depression associated with other neurologic disorders), a consistent PET imaging finding is frontal lobe hypometabolism. Many TLE patients have hypometabolism involving frontal regions. Thus in data available from routine clinical assessments in an epilepsy surgery unit, we tested the hypothesis that the pattern of hypometabolism, particularly in the frontal lobe, may be associated with the depression seen in patients with TLE and TLE surgery. Methods: We studied 23 medically refractory TLE patients who underwent anterior temporal lobe..