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Epileptic Psychosis: An Evaluation of PSE Profiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. M. Perez
Affiliation:
St. Georges Hospital, London
M. R. Trimble*
Affiliation:
The National Hospital and The Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London
N. M. F. Murray
Affiliation:
The National Hospital Queen Square, London
I. Reider
Affiliation:
Medical Centre, Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel
*
Correspondence

Summary

Data are presented on 24 patients with epilepsy and psychosis whose clinical presentation was rated using the Present State Examination (PSE). Seventeen had complex partial seizures and a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy, seven had generalised epilepsy. An association between a CATEGO category of nuclear schizophrenia (NS) and a lesion of the left side was noted. No clear link between depressive symptoms and a right-sided focus was discovered. Affective disorders were noted in both groups of epileptic patients, although paranoid psychoses were commoner in the temporal lobe group. There was also a tendency for the latter to have more delusions of persecution, ideas of reference, and special features of depression. The group rated as NS appear less likely to show evidence of intellectual deterioration than the other psychotic patients; in addition, the interval between the onset of their epilepsy and the onset of their psychosis is shorter. Radiological assessment by CAT reveals few differences between groups, but the psychotic samples do show higher than expected values on a number of variables, in particular the bilateral septum-caudate distance and the size of the third and fourth ventricle.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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