Hypergraphia and mental handicap.

Eight hundred and twenty-five mentally handicapped patients, housed in two hospitals, of all ages and both sexes, were examined for hypergraphia. Thirty-three patients (18 males and 15 females) were found to exhibit this phenomenon; approximately half of these were suffering from epilepsy, including five patients with temporal lobe abnormality. The different types of hypergraphia are reported and possible causes discussed.