Altered upright face recognition and presence of face inversion effect in temporal lobe epilepsy: An event-related potential study.

Aim: Facial recognition can be assessed by examining an event-related potential component, namely the N170. The amplitude of the N170 is larger in response to inverted faces than to upright faces. To examine facial processing in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), we investigated the amplitude of the N170, the face inversion effect, and the association between social functioning and face-specific configuration processing.

Clinical characteristics of patients with diagnostic uncertainty of major depressive disorder.

Background: Physicians do not always confidently diagnose psychiatric disorders. The present study was conducted to identify the clinical characteristics of patients in whom a definitive diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) could not be established.

Methods: The participants were 199 consecutive outpatients with MDD, who were comprehensively diagnosed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI).

Unraveling complex relationships among dysphoric disorder, localization-related epilepsy, and mood disorders.

Background: Dysphoric disorder (DD), characterized by intermittent pleomorphic symptoms, has been believed to be specific to epilepsy. However, our previous study revealed that DD in patients with localization-related epilepsy was associated with a lifetime diagnosis of mood disorders. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of DD in patients with mood disorders, but not epilepsy, and to identify the clinical similarities and differences of DD in patients with either epilepsy or mood disorders.

The multiple diagnoses of comorbid anxiety disorders and higher interpersonal sensitivity predict treatment-resistant depression.

Background: The present study was conducted to examine the hypothesis based on our previous studies, that the multiple diagnoses of comorbid anxiety disorders (ADs) and higher interpersonal sensitivity predict treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Methods: The participants were 199 consecutive outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD), who were comprehensively diagnosed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). TRD was defined as the failure to achieve remission with two or more adequate antidepressant trials.

Interictal dysphoric disorder in patients with localization-related epilepsy: Diagnostic relationships with DSM-IV psychiatric disorders and the impact of psychosocial burden.

Background: Some patients with epilepsy develop intermittent and pleomorphic affective-somatoform symptoms, termed interictal dysphoric disorder (IDD). Other psychiatric disorders have been extensively investigated in patients with epilepsy, but there are few clinical studies investigating the comorbidity patterns of IDD and common psychiatric disorders (PDs). In particular, the impact of IDD on the psychosocial burden of patients remains unclear.