The Temporolimbic Personality: A cross-national study

Abstract

Background and objectives: Early investigators claimed that temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) was associated with a personality traits and psychiatric symptoms collectively known as the interictal behavioral syndrome or Geschwind's syndrome. Interictal behavioral alterations associated with TLE included affective dysregulation; irritability and impulsive aggression; anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms paranoia; abnormal patterns of social interaction; schizophrenic-like symptoms and dissociative states; hypergraphia; and hyperreligiosity. A number of psychiatric disorders are known to have subclinical variants. Are recurrent temperolimbic seizure-like events (as determined by a self-report symptom inventory-the LSCL-Limbic System Checklist) among non-clinical subjects also associated with TLE-related psychiatric symptoms/syndromes and personality features?