Further Psychiatric Investigations of Patients with Temporal and Nontemporal Lobe Epilepsy

Several recent reports in the literature on temporal lobe epilepsy have suggested that there are unique psychopathological manifestations in these patients. The present study, a modified double-blind evaluation of 50 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and 50 controls with other types of convulsive disorders, was undertaken to test such a hypothesis. Although some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy did display the psychopathological attributes previously reported to be characteristic of these patients, some patients in the control group also displayed them. The authors conclude that temporal and nontemporal epilepsy cannot be distinguished by the incidence of certain concomitant mental disorders.