Epilepsy and personality

Abstract

The last 50 years have seen substantial change in the characterisation and treatment of both epilepsy and personality disorder, making the literature on personality in epilepsy difficult to interpret. Personality dysfunction appears more common in patients with intractable epilepsy than in the general population, but there is little data on the wider epilepsy population. Early studies suggested that Temporal Lobe Epilepsy was associated with a particular personality type, but recent data has generally not supported this. However, this ‘epileptic personality’ has some similarity to DSM ‘Cluster C’ personality disorders, which appear, more common in patients admitted for Video EEG monitoring. ..