POSTICTAL PSYCHOSIS - A COMPARISON WITH ACUTE INTERICTAL AND CHRONIC PSYCHOSES

We studied 30 patients with postictal psychosis and compared them with 33 patients with acute interictal psychosis and 25 patients with chro nic psychosis. All patients had either complex partial seizures (CPS) or EEG temporal epileptogenic foci. Patients with postictal psychosis had a high incidence of psychic auras and nocturnal secondarily genera lized seizures. The most striking feature that distinguished postictal psychosis from both acute interictal and chronic psychoses was phenom enological: the relatively frequent occurrence of grandiose delusions as well as religious delusions in the setting of markedly elevated moo ds and feeling of mystic fusion of the body with the universe. In addi tion, postictal psychosis exhibited few schizophreniform psychotic tra its such as perceptual delusions or voices commenting. Reminiscence, m ental diplopia, and a feeling of impending death were also fairly freq uent complaints of patients with postictal psychosis. Interictal acute psychosis and chronic epileptic psychosis were psychopathologically s imilar. Although acute interictal and chronic epileptic psychoses coul d simulate schizophrenia, postictal psychosis results in a mental stat e quite different from that of schizophrenic psychosis.