Neurobehavioral Problems in Epilepsy, Advances in Neurology

Neurobehavioral Problems in Epilepsy, Advances in Neurology, Volume 55

D.B. Smith, Treiman, Trimble

New York, NY: Raven Press, 507 pp., 1990

There are few areas which illustrate the overlaps and borderlands between neurology and psychiatry better than epilepsy. This new book, the latest volume in the “Advances in Neurology” series, is a comprehensive examination of the complex relationship between epilepsy and the psyche written by a multitude of acknowledged experts. This is a timely work which draws on numerous publications over the past decade and synthesizes the burgeoning knowledge in this important area.

The volume is divided into five sections: “Neurological Substrates of Behavioral Change,” “The Effects of Epilepsy and Seizures on Behavior,” “The Effects of Treatment on Behavior,” “Ictal and Interictal Behavioral Syndromes,” and “Environmental and Social Issues.” The basic neurochemical, neurophysiological and neurohistological aspects pertaining to the topic are well-covered in several chapters including superb discussions by Dr. Pierre Gloor on “Neurological substrates of ictal behavioral changes” and on the “neurophysiological aspects of memory disturbances in epileptic patients” by Dr. Halgren and colleagues.

There is much of interest to psychiatrists in this compilation. The chapter by Janice Stevens on “Psychosis and the Temporal Lobe” deals succinctly with the complex relationship between schizophrenia and epileptic psychosis. Trimble, writing on “Interictal Psychoses of Epilepsy,” attempts to sort out the factors which might be responsible for the schizophreniform psychosis seen in a small proportion of epileptic patients. Blumer treats the topic of “Epilepsy and Disorders of Mood.” A welcome in-depth review of the use of antiepileptic drugs in affective illness is presented by Post et al. In view of the increasing use of antiepileptic drugs for psychiatric patients this chapter, as well as two other chapters reviewing cognitive and behavioral effects of antiepileptic drugs, should be of interest to many psychiatrists. Other relevant topics such as aggression and epilepsy, ictal amnesia and fugue states and personality disturbances in epilepsy are covered in separate chapters.

This superbly produced volume holds much of interest to neurologists, psychiatrists and psychobiologists. It is the current authoritative source for information pertaining to behavioral aspects of epilepsy.