Peri-Ictal Behavioral and Cognitive Changes.

Peri-ictal behavioral and cognitive changes contribute substantially to disability and distress among people with epilepsy. Psychosis, depression, and suicide may all occur as complications of seizures. Greater appreciation and understanding of the peri-ictal period is clinically important and might open novel therapeutic windows. At the same time this period provides a model for understanding basic mechanisms underlying mood and thought disorders and the substrates of cognition, volition, emotion, and consciousness. This review will discuss behavioral and cognitive antecedents of seizures, including the preictal milieu, reflex seizures, and self-induced seizures. Behavioral and cognitive treatment approaches that have been undertaken are reviewed. Both acute and delayed postictal emotional, behavioral, and cognitive changes will be discussed. Finally, possible mechanisms by which epileptic brain activity and behavior may modify each other are considered.