Psychoses Associated with Anticonvulsant Toxicity

Acute intoxication with many of the antiepileptic drugs may present with mental symptoms (encephalopathy, confusion, psychosis), sometimes in the absence of other clinical signs such as nystagmus, dysarthria or ataxia etc. (Logan and Freeman 1969 ; McDonal and Bolman 1975 ; Ahmad et al. 1975 ; Reynolds 1982). Atypical anticonvulsant toxicity in mentally retarded children have been reported but not in a specific association with mental retardation (Logan and Freeman 1969 ; Dahl 1967 ; Hoaken et al. 1963 ; Prensky et al. 1971). In this paper, we present two patients with chronic organic brain syndrome or borderline mental retardation who developed a functional psychosis associated with anticonvulsant toxcity.