Interictal behavioral changes in epilepsy.

Common behavioral alterations associated with epilepsy include increased interest in philosophical and religious concerns, increased and extensive writing of a cosmic or philosophical nature, changes in sexual behavior, and aggressiveness. Psychological stress, the effects of anticonvulsant therapy, and the actual occurrence of seizures or convulsions can be ruled out as possible causes of the syndrome. It is speculated that these behavioral alterations are the result of an intermittent spike focus in the temporal lobe that leads to an alteration in the responsiveness of the limbic system. Thus, there is a heightened emotional response to many stimuli as well as a decrease in sexual responsiveness. In an effort to discover the cause of the high incidence of sexual alterations, abnormalities in response to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) were found in a group of patients with partial complex seizures, some of whom had no overt sexual dysfunction and had never received anticonvulsant therapy.