Frequency of hypergraphia in temporal lobe epilepsy: an index of interictal behaviour syndrome.

Frequency and degree of hypergraphia were studied in order to assess interictal behaviour change in temporal lobe epilepsy. Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy tended to reply more frequently to a standard questionnaire, and wrote extensively (mean: 1301 words) as compared to others (mean: 106 words). The incidence of temporal lobe epilepsy was 73% in patients exhibiting hypergraphia compared to 17% in patients without this trait. These findings suggest that hypergraphia may be a quantitative index of behaviour change in temporal lobe epilepsy.