Can epilepsy change your personality?

Many people with epilepsy experience disagreeable changes in their emotions, and the link between mood disorders and epilepsy has been observed for more than 2,000 years. While this link has been noticed for many years, the relationship between seizures and mood disorders has not been well understood until recently.

Can epilepsy cause personality disorders?

Psychosis, depression, paranoia, and personality disorders may represent a negative pole of epilepsy-related behavioral changes. The most important aspect of behavioral changes in epilepsy for physicians is to recognize and treat dysfunctional behavior.

Can epilepsy change your behavior?

Epilepsy has significant effects on the behavior of most people who have it. In some cases the seizure activity itself is manifested as a brief change or interruption in behavior that might appear unusual to the casual observer. Evidence also suggests that epilepsy can affect behavior when seizures are not occurring.

Does epilepsy affect your attitude?

The types of behavioral problems associated with epilepsy include attention deficit, hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, aggression, and autism spectrum disorder. Early identification and treatment of behavioral problems provides the best possible outcome.

Can epilepsy cause anger issues?

Epilepsy (especially complex partial seizures) frequently has been associated with aggressive behavior in the minds of people in general and even in the medical literature.

Moods and Behavior from epilepsy.com

How does epilepsy affect you emotionally?

The most common mood disorders in people with epilepsy are major depression and dysthymia. Some people have milder forms of depression that may also affect quality of life and respond to treatment. Anxiety, while not technically a mood disorder, is another common emotion that occurs more often in people with epilepsy.

Can epilepsy cause bipolar?

Another common mood disorder in people with epilepsy is bipolar affective disorder. It is characterized by two types of symptoms: depression and mania.

How does epilepsy affect a person socially?

People with epilepsy are generally found to have fewer social supports compared to those without this condition, are less likely to marry, have fewer children [11], have lower rates of employment [12] and cite lack of social engagement and difficulty in developing satisfying interpersonal relationships as common ...

Is epilepsy considered a mental illness?

Epilepsy is not a mental illness. In fact, the vast majority of people living with epilepsy have no cognitive or psychological problem. For the most part, psychological issues in epilepsy are limited to people with severe and uncontrolled epilepsy.

Can epilepsy make you immature?

Seizures and epilepsies may disrupt brain development. Often, these maldevelopmental consequences of seizures may manifest as age- inappropriate reversal to immature functions and developmental processes.

Does epilepsy affect maturity?

In summary, epilepsy is a complex disorder that has an impact on many aspects of a child's development and functioning. As a result, many of these children are at increased risk for unsuccessful school experiences; difficulties in social engagement with peers; inadequate social-skills; and poor self-esteem.

Can epilepsy cause mental confusion?

Because epilepsy is caused by abnormal activity in the brain, seizures can affect any process your brain coordinates. Seizure signs and symptoms may include: Temporary confusion.

Does epilepsy cause psychosis?

Psychosis in people with epilepsy is most often classified according to the time when episodes occur, in relation to seizures: Postictal psychosis has been estimated to affect between 6% and 10% of people with epilepsy.

How does epilepsy affect my life?

Epilepsy, seizures, and medication can affect how you feel both physically and emotionally. Seizures can cause injury or make you feel tired and 'out of sorts'. You may be quite relaxed about your epilepsy or it may make you stressed or depressed. All these feelings can affect your well-being, concentration or memory.

Do seizures damage your brain?

Most types of seizures do not cause damage to the brain. However, having a prolonged, uncontrolled seizure can cause harm. Because of this, treat any seizure lasting over 5 minutes as a medical emergency.

Is epilepsy linked to schizophrenia?

Studies have identified a clear association between epilepsy and mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and psychosis. A Danish study has e.g. shown that people with epilepsy have a risk of developing schizophrenia that is two-and-a-half times higher than those without epilepsy.

What problems do people with epilepsy face?

For example, you may experience mood problems, changes related to seizure timing or side effects of medicines. Others may experience issues with sleeping, thinking and memory, or socializing with others. In rare instances, early death or SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) can occur.

How does a person with epilepsy feel?

Some people have nausea or unusual feelings that are difficult to describe. These seizures may also result in difficulty speaking, involuntary jerking of a body part, such as an arm or a leg, and spontaneous sensory symptoms such as tingling, dizziness and seeing flashing lights.

What is the life expectancy of someone with epilepsy?

Reduction in life expectancy can be up to 2 years for people with a diagnosis of idiopathic/cryptogenic epilepsy, and the reduction can be up to 10 years in people with symptomatic epilepsy. Reductions in life expectancy are highest at the time of diagnosis and diminish with time.

Can seizures cause paranoia?

A long-term of uncontrolled seizures can lead to a chronic psychotic state in more than 5% of patients, often with psychiatric symptoms of paranoid delusions and hallucinations [3].

Is depression and epilepsy linked?

A strong relationship has been shown between the severity of epilepsy and depression. The more severe the epilepsy, the more severe the depression. The link can go both ways. People with depression may be at risk for developing epilepsy.

Can seizures trigger mania?

It has been suggested that epilepsy, especially temporal lobe epilepsy, plays an important role in the genesis of manic states 5, 6, 11. For instance, manic states may appear during ictal or postictal epileptic events and after increased epileptic activity or seizure suppression by AEDs 3, 4, 12, 13.

Can epilepsy mimic schizophrenia?

People who have epilepsy seem particularly liable to certain major psychiatric disorders: a chronic interictal psychosis that closely resembles schizophrenia; and episodic psychotic states, some of which may arise in close temporal relation with seizure activity.

What is psychotic epilepsy?

Epileptic psychoses reflect a fundamental disruption in the fidelity of mind and occur during seizure freedom or during or after seizures. The psychotic symptoms in epilepsy share some qualities with schizophrenic psychosis, such as positive symptoms of paranoid delusions and hallucinations.

What does a psychotic seizure look like?

Psychosis includes delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, mood changes, and aggressive behavior. It typically emerges after a lucid interval of hours or days after the last seizure. This treatable disorder is associated with serious morbidity and mortality.