Personality characteristics of epileptic patients: a controlled study of generalized and temporal lobe cases.

Patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), right TLE, and generalized epilepsy (GE) were compared on a self-report inventory of personal behavior, ideas, and convictions. Distinct personality profiles emerged for the left TLEs and GEs, while the right TLEs responded like neurologically normal individuals. The quality of these profile differences may indicate a contribution of disordered left-hemisphere language mechanisms to the interictal personality syndrome of TLE.