One hundred patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and normal intelligence and 100 age- and sex-matched controls were submitted to psychiatric interview using the Clinical Interview Schedule. Nineteen patients and 15 controls were identified as having psychiatric disorders. Anxiety and depression were the predominating diagnoses in both groups. Personality disorders were occasionally present in subjects with epilepsy. The study shows that patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and normal neuropsychological abilities should not be considered at any higher risk of psychiatric disturbance than a non-neurological patient population.