Psychic Seizures and Their Relevance to Psychosis in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Psychic seizures are defined as simple partial seizures manifesting themselves as psychic phenomena. Their current classification is neither comprehensive nor rational enough, mainly because psychic seizures are defined as subjective phenomena and not as objective dysfunctions. The high incidence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is not only resulted from misdiagnosis but causally linked to psychic seizures. In this article the relationship between psychic seizures and various psychiatric disturbances found in TLE patients is discussed from a clinical viewpoint. Psychosis in TLE patients has historically been of special interest, whose relationship with schizophrenia is still unresolved. In this article the possible effect of psychic seizures on the generation of psychosis in TLE patients is discussed based on the author’s own data obtained from magnetoencephalographic localization of psychic seizures and psychosis in TLE patients.