Temporal lobe epilepsy, psychopathology, and violence

Several recent reports reaffirm the widespread impression that temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is frequently accompanied by psychopathology, violence, or a variety of unpleasant personality traits. However, in most of these studies, appropriate control populations were not used and the specificity of TLE in predisposing to these characteristics was not considered. When appropriate controls are employed, damage or dysfunction in the basal forebrain rather than TLE per se appears to be a significant factor in predisposing to psychopathology associated with epilepsy.