POSTICTAL PSYCHOSIS - A REVIEW

Although postictal psychosis (PIP) has only recently been characterize d, it is an important complication of medically intractable complex pa rtial seizures. The demographics, symptomatology, treatment, and outco me of patients with PIP will be reviewed. PIP commonly occurs in the s etting of increased frequency and bitemporal epileptiform interictal a ctivity. Features differentiating PIP from other epileptic psychoses w ill be discussed, as will the proposed underlying mechanisms, PIP is a ssociated with a later age of onset and higher IQ scores than chronic interictal psychosis, suggesting less underlying brain damage. Althoug h animal kindling studies suggest that postictal dopaminergic hyperact ivity is part of a homeostatic response to increased seizure frequency , human radioligand PET studies indicate its potential role in the evo lution of psychotic symptoms.