AGGRESSION IN EPILEPSY

The occurence of aggressive and autoaggressive behaviour and the causa l correlation of this behaviour to epilepsy has been studied in a neur ologic (n = 87) and a psychiatric (n = 26) group of epileptic patients . In both groups aggressive behaviour towards others correlated signif icantly with the diagnosis of organic personality disorder and/or ment al retardation, in the neurologic group furthermore with the presence of an additional psychiatric diagnosis in general. Regarding the causa l correlation between epilepsy and aggression, it could be demonstrate d that the behaviour disorders described had unspecific causes in the great majority of cases and no correlation existed to the ictal phenom ena.