Development of mental health dysfunction in childhood epilepsy.

A marked prevalence of mental health dysfunction in childhood epilepsy has been documented in the literature. While several individual risk factors have been identified, which are statistically associated with an impaired mental health outcome, there is a lack of knowledge on the pathways taken by these risk factors on disease development and treatment. The relevant literature of the last decade will be reviewed in this paper to provide evidence for the conceptual framework presented here.