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Epileptic Psychosis—Diagnostic Comparison with Process Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. M. Perez
Affiliation:
Department of Neuropsychiatry, The National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London WC1
M. R. Trimble
Affiliation:
Department of Neuropsychiatry, The National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London WC1

Summary

The mental states of 23 epileptic psychotic patients and 10 patients with process schizophrenia were compared, using the Present State Examination. The epileptics displayed marked heterogeneity of psychiatric diagnoses. Disturbances of affect underlying the psychosis or presenting as manic-depressive psychosis were frequent and independent of the type of epilepsy. Schizophrenic psychosis, classified with psychopathological criteria similar to those used in the non-epileptic schizophrenic group, was significantly associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. Psychoses other than schizophrenia, however, were present in 5 out of 16 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. These results support a relationship between schizophrenic symptoms and temporal lobe pathology and emphasize the need to use reproducible methods of diagnosis in psychiatric research.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

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