Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:15:22.933Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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 

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

Bruens, J. M. (1971) Psychosis in epilepsy. Psychiatria, Neurologia, Neurochirurgia, 74, 175–92.Google Scholar
Cooper, J. E., Kendell, R. E., Gurland, B. J., Sharpe, L., Copeland, J. R. M. & Simon, R. (1972) Psychiatric Diagnosis in New York and London. A comparative study of hospital admissions. Maudsley Monograph No. 20. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dongier, S. (1959/60) Statistical study of clinical and electroencephalographic manifestations of 536 psychotic episodes occurring in 516 epileptics between clinical seizures. Epilepsia, 1, 117–42.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1969) Psychosis and temporal lobe epilepsy: A controlled investigation. Epilepsia, 10, 363–95.Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1976) Epilepsy and psychopathology. In: Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry. No. 2 (262–95) (ed. K. Granville-Grossman). Churchill and Livingstone.Google Scholar
Pond, D. A. (1957) Psychiatric aspects of epilepsy. Journal of Indian Medical Profession, 3, 1441–51.Google Scholar
Rodin, E. A. DeJong, R. M., Waggoner, R. W. & Baggi, B. K. (1956) Relationships between certain forms of psychomotor epilepsy and schizophrenia. Diagnostic considerations. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Chic), 77, 449–63.Google Scholar
Siegel, S. (1956) Non-Parametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences. International Student Edition. New York and London: McGraw-Hill, Kogakusha.Google Scholar
Slater, E., Beard, A. W. & Glithero, E. (1963) The schizophrenia-like psychosis of epilepsy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 109, 95150.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1973) The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia. Vol. 1. Geneva: World Health Organization Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1974) Glossary of Mental Disorders and Guide to their Classification. 8th Revision. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. An Instruction Manual in the PSE and CATEGO program. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.