Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:29:06.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Post-Ictal Psychoses

A Clinical and Phenomenological Description

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

S. J. Logsdail*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The National Hospital for Nervous Diseases
B. K. Toone
Affiliation:
Kings College Hospital, London
*
Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG

Abstract

Post-ictal psychoses have so far received little attention. The clinical details of 14 cases, diagnosed according to newly formulated criteria, were examined. Psychoses were usually precipitated by a run of seizures and occurred after a lucid interval. The seizures were partial complex with secondary generalisation in 11 cases. Catego analysis of the Present State Examination confirmed pleomorphic phenomenology. Follow-up details were available in all cases, for up to eight years. Psychoses tended to recur. Similarities with chronic epileptic psychosis are discussed, and a possible organic aetiology for post-ictal psychosis is proposed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Betts, T. A. (1974) A follow-up of a cohort of English patients with epilepsy admitted to psychiatric care in an English city. In Epilepsy: Proceedings of the Hans Berger Centenary Symposium (eds Harris, P. & Mawdsley, C.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Bogerts, B., Meertz, E. & Schonfeldt-Bausch, R. (1985) Basal ganglia and limbic system pathology in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 784791.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, R. A. & Lesko, J. M. (1939) Psychoses associated with epilepsy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 96, 595607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutting, J. (1980) Physical illness and psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 109119.Google Scholar
Dongier, S. (1959) Statistical study of clinical and electroencephalographic manifestations of 536 psychotic episodes occurring in 516 epileptics between clinical seizures. Epilepsia, 1, 117142.Google ScholarPubMed
Esquirol, E. (1838) Maladies Mentales. Paris: J.-B. Balliere.Google Scholar
Gastaut, H. (1970) Clinical and electroencephalographical classification of epileptic seizures. Epilepsia, 11, 102113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gunn, J. & Fenton, G. W. (1969) Epilepsy in prisons: a diagnostic survey. British Medical Journal, iv, 326328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (1875) On temporary mental disorders after epileptic paroxysms. West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports, 5, 105129.Google Scholar
Landolt, H. (1958) Serial electroencephalographic investigations during psychotic episodes in epileptic patients and during schizophrenic attacks. In Lectures in Epilepsy (ed. Lorentz de Haas, A. M.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Levin, S. (1952) Epileptic clouded states. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 116, 214225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lishman, W. A. (1978) Organic Psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Modigh, K. (1975) Electroconvulsive shock and postsynaptic catacholamine effects; increased psychomotor stimulant action of apomorphine and clonidine in reserpine pretreated mice by ECS. Journal of Neural Transmission, 36, 1932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perez, M. M. & Trimble, M. R. (1980) Epileptic psychosis: diagnostic comparison with process schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 245249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reynolds, E. H. (1967) Schizophrenia-like psychoses of epilepsy and disturbances of folate and B12 metabolism. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 911919.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slater, E., Beard, A. W. & Clitheroe, E. (1963) The schizophrenia-like psychoses of epilepsy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 109, 95105.Google Scholar
Toone, B. K. (1981) Epilepsy and Psychiatry (eds Reynolds, E. H. & Trimble, M. R.). London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Toone, B. K., Garralda, E. & Ron, M. A. (1982) The psychoses of epilepsy and the functional psychoses: a clinical and phenomenological comparison. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 256261.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F. & Peterson, M. R. (1974) Schizophrenia and the limbic system. The Lancet, ii, 942946.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1983) Use and misuse of the PSE. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 111117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978) Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.