Mendez M F, Doss R C, Taylor J L, Arguello R
Department of Neurology, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, University of Minnesota 55101.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1993 Summer;5(3):283-6. doi: 10.1176/jnp.5.3.283.
Among epileptic patients, personality disorders may be associated with specific seizure manifestations. In an epilepsy clinic, we identified 42 idiopathic epilepsy patients diagnosed with various DSM-III-R personality disorders, including borderline, atypical or mixed, explosive, and dependent. When compared with 42 age- and sex-matched epileptic control subjects on six seizure variables, the personality disorder group had more patients with epileptic auras (P = 0.001), particularly "cephalic" auras, and fewer with secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that the experience of epileptic auras contributes to the development of personality disorders, especially when auras are not masked by secondarily generalized seizures.
