Description

Some patients with temporal lobe epilepsy may develop an interictal behavior syndrome with certain characteristic features as described by Geschwind and associates.


 

Features:

(1) history of temporal lobe epilepsy

(2) excessive interest in religion (religiosity), morality, philosophy or cosmology

(3) hypergraphia (extensive and compulsive writing and/or drawing)

(4) alteration in sexual behavior (hyposexuality, fetishes, hypersexuality)

(5) some patients may be diagnosed as psychotic

(6) viscosity ("stickiness") in responses and interpersonal interaction

 

Features of the hypergraphia:

(1) obsessive and compulsive

(2) repetition of words, sentences and themes

(3) may take the form of extensive diary keeping, writing books, or dictations

 

Religiosity:

(1) sudden conversion

(2) compulsive reading of sacred texts

(3) compulsive attendance at churches or religious sites

(4) feeling of being chosen

 


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