Long-term outcome in children with temporal lobe seizures. III: Psychiatric aspects in childhood and adult life.

One hundred children with temporal lobe epilepsy were followed into adult life. 85 per cent had had psychiatric problems in childhood. The occurrence of overt psychiatric disorder in adult life was low: of those survivors who were not gravely mentally retarded, 70 per cent were regarded as psychiatrically healthy. Overt schizophreniform psychosis has developed in 10 per cent of survivors. Males with continuing epilepsy and left-sided foci were at special risk: 30 per cent of such patients had become psychotic. No patient coded as having a right-sided focus in 1964 had become psychotic by 1977. Though 26 patients had had grossly disordered childhood homes, this factor had no significant relation to adult psychiatric disorder. Antisocial conduct marked the adult life of 12 patients. Their childhood codes showed that male sex, a focus contralateral to the preferred hand, and unremittent epilepsy marked this group. Low intelligence and childhood rages were also prominent. Treated neurotic and depressive illness was quite uncommon. Only five survivors have fallen into this category. Those patients escaping psychiatric ill-health are often notably extraverted and successful.