Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T19:03:34.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Schizophrenia-like Psychoses of Epilepsy

i. Psychiatric Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Extract

In 1953, in an article intended for the general practitioner, Denis Hill made a brief reference to the chronic paranoid psychoses which may develop in association with temporal lobe epilepsy. He described the condition as likely to come on when the seizures were diminishing in frequency, as appearing gradually with onset in middle age, and as resembling a paranoid schizophrenic state. In 1957, D. A. Pond, from the same department of applied electro-physiology at the Maudsley Hospital, gave a more detailed account of the clinical features. He described the psychotic states as closely resembling schizophrenia, with paranoid ideas which might become systematized, ideas of influence, auditory hallucinations often of a menacing quality; and occasional frank thought disorder with neologisms, condensed words and inconsequential sentences. There were, however, also some points of difference, of a quantitative rather than qualitative kind: a religious colouring of the paranoid ideas was common; the affect tended to remain warm and appropriate; and there was no typical deterioration to the hebephrenic state. All the patients had epilepsy arising from the temporal lobe region with complex auras; occasional major seizures occurred in sleep only. EEG foci, always present, were sometimes only to be demonstrated in sleep-sphenoidal records. The epilepsy began some years before the psychotic symptoms, usually in the late teens or the twenties; and the latter often seemed to begin as the epileptic attacks were diminishing in frequency, either spontaneously or with drug treatment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1963 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlet, J. E. A. (1957). “Chronic psychosis following epilepsy”, Am. J. Psychiat., 114, 338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ervin, F., Epstein, A. W., and King, H. E. (1955), “Behavior of epileptic and non-epileptic patients with temporal spikes”, Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 74, 488.Google Scholar
Feuchtwanger, E., and Mayer-Gross, W. (1938). “Hirnverletzung und Epilepsie”, Schweiz. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 41, 17.Google Scholar
Glaus, A. (1931). “Ueber Kombinationen von Schizophrenie und Epilepsie”, Zeitschr. ges. Neur. Psychiat., 135, 450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruhle, H. W. (1936). “Ueber den Wahn bei Epilepsie”, Zeitschr. ges. Neur. Psychiat., 154, 395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, D. (1953). “Psychiatric disorders of epilepsy”, Med. Press, 20, 473.Google Scholar
Hillbom, E. (1960). “After-effects of brain injuries”, Acta psychiat. neurol. Scand., suppl. 142.Google Scholar
Jasper, H. H., Fitzpatrick, C. P., and Solomon, P. (1939). “Analogies and opposites in schizophrenia and epilepsy”, Am. J. Psychiat., 95, 834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karagulla, S., and Robertson, E. E. (1955). “Psychical phenomena in temporal lobe epilepsy and the psychoses”, Brit. med. J., i, 748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krapf, E. (1928). “Epilepsie und Schizophrenie”, Arch. f. Psychiat., 83, 547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pond, D. A. (1957). “Psychiatric aspects of epilepsy”, J. Ind. med. Prof., 3, 1441.Google Scholar
Rey, J. H., Pond, D. A., and Evans, C. C. (1949). “Clinical and electroencephalographic studies of temporal lobe functions”, Proc. roy. Soc. Med., 42, 891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodin, E. A., de Jong, R. N., Waggoner, R. W., and Bagchi, B. K. (1957). “Relationship between certain forms of psychomotor epilepsy and ‘schizophrenia’ ”, Arch. Neur. Psychiat., 77, 449.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.