The personality of epileptics: A discussion of the evidence.

Perceived Parental Rearing Behaviour and Psychopathology in Epileptic Patients: A Controlled Study

“…Moreover, the higher scores of fathers and mothers of epileptics on the subscale 'favouring subject' and of the mothers on the subscale 'tolerant' confirm the reported tendency of parents of patients with epilepsy to regard their chil dren as 'fragile' and to treat them in a more indulgent way because of their disability [Mulder and Suurmeijer, 1977;West, 1979], Even more consistent with previous anec dotal reports are the results of the compari son between epileptics with and without interictal psychopathological features. In par ticular, the higher score on the subscale 'overprotective' in the mothers of patients with psychopathological features (a large proportion of whom had manifested impul siveness or emotional instability) is in line with the reported association between ma ternal overprotectiveness and aggressive be havior [Bagley, 1971], while the higher scores on the subscales 'abusive' and 'depriv ing' in the fathers of the same patients sup port the linkage between parental autocratic behaviour and personality disorders [Tizard, 1962], Of course, parental rearing practices must be regarded as only one of the variables which may promote the development of psy chopathology in patients with epilepsy. More precisely, they find their place, accord ing to Hermann and Whitman [1984], among the 'nonbrain-related' factors, which would explain a large part of the variance in affective disorders of epileptic patients, a part of the variance equal to 'brain-related' factors (structural brain abnormalities, neurochcmical alterations, etc.)…”

“…Autocratic parental attitudes have been also related to child's school underachievement [Hartlage and Green, 1972] and personality disorders [Tizard, 1962].…”

The effect of kindling of different nuclei in the left and right amygdala on anxiety in the rat

“…Epilepsy was formerly thought to be associated with a variety of psychopathologies (Tizard, 1962). However, it was Gibbs and Gibbs (1964) who first demonstrated empirically that individuals whose epileptic seizures began in the temporal lobes had a significantly higher incidence of psychopathology relative to patients with other foci or with generalized seizure disorder.…”

The Psychobiology of Consciousness

“…When objective psychological instruments standardized on patients grouped phenomenologically or on the basis of psychodynamic personality constellations have been used to examine temporal lobe epileptic patients, there has been poor correspondence with established psychiatric diagnostic groups (Glaser, 1964;Mignone, Donnelly, & Sadowsky, 1970;Small & Small, 1967;Tizard, 1962). Yet, as we shall see, when the intrinsic cognitive and sensory-affective characteristics of each temporal lobe are examined from a review of patients with known unilateral temporallobe lesions, it becomes possible to infer a relationship between the spectrum of personality and behavioral characteristics of patients with disinhibited temporal lobes and a spectrum of "functional" psychopathological syndromes that include affect disorder, character pathology including aggressiveness, paranoia, obsessiveness, hysteria, and alcohol and drug addiction-perhaps representing a gradient of lost serotonergic inhibition of temporal lobe subjective phenomena as well as dopaminergic nigral-amygdaloid compulsive and aggressive behaviors (Cadoret, 1976;Gershon et al, 1975;Guze, Woodruff, & Clayton, 1972;Shields, 1975;Van Valkenburg, Lowry, Winokur, & Cadoret, 1977;Winokur & Clayton, 1966).…”