Citation

Bogdanovic MD, Mead SH, Duncan JS. Seizure 2000; 9(1): 58-64.

Affiliation

The National Hospital for Neurology, National Society for Epilepsy, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, SL9 0RJ, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1053/seiz.1999.0363

PMID

10667965

Abstract

There is an extensive literature on epilepsy and violence, but no study has addressed aggression (i.e. apparently intentional violence) in a residential-care population. We performed a retrospective study at the Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy (a residential-care facility in rural Buckinghamshire) in order to determine the frequency and character of episodes of aggression. This allowed us to identify a group of aggressive subjects who were compared with age- and sex-matched control subjects drawn from the remaining residents. We found the prevalence of aggression to be 27.2% in 1 year amongst long-term residents. The overall frequency was estimated at between 121 and 207 incidents per 100 persons per year. A few incidents (0.7%) were related to an acute psychosis but they were more likely to result in significant injury. Offenders were younger than non-aggressive residents. Gender, age of onset of epilepsy, history of psychosis, mobility, abnormality on MRI scan, learning disability and seizure frequency were not associated with aggressive conduct.

Language: en