Citation

Mula M. Epilepsy Behav. 2014; 30: 14-16.

Affiliation

Division of Neurology, Trinity Hospital, Borgomanero, Italy. Electronic address: marco.mula@med.unipmn.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.09.011

PMID

24094844

Abstract

In epilepsy, experiential phenomena and behavioral manifestations may pose a number of problems in terms of differential diagnosis. From a clinical point of view, ictal psychiatric symptoms represent partial seizures, mainly partial ones. In the majority of cases, they are very brief (lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes), stereotyped, out of context, and frequently associated with subtle or overt automatisms and postictal confusion of variable duration. In some cases, such symptoms are followed by alteration of consciousness as the ictus evolves to a complex partial seizure or a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. This paper reviews clinically relevant behavioral patterns during seizures discussing clinical phenomenology and relevance in terms of lateralizing value. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Epilepsy and Consciousness.

Language: en