Psychosis and epilepsy in young people.

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of children and young people under 19 with both epilepsy and a psychotic state (schizophrenia-like psychotic episode, organic delusional disorder, or other brief psychotic episode). In total, the clinical case notes for 17 young people with these characteristics were identified retrospectively from three different sources. Compared with a group of young people with psychosis without epilepsy, children with epilepsy and psychosis more frequently had other neuropsychological problems like learning disability and autism. Both groups had a high rate of family histories of mental illness and social disability. Contrary to the findings in adults with psychosis and epilepsy, in this group of young people, psychosis was associated neither with temporal lobe epilepsy nor with mesial temporal sclerosis. The children with psychosis and epilepsy had a variety of seizure types and structural abnormalities.