[Legal aspects of temporal lobe epilepsy in prisoners]

The last report of the french Direction Générale de La Santé noted that epilepsy is twice more common in inmates than in the French population at large for the same range of age. Temporal lobe epilepsy is well known to give rise to aggressive behaviour and to psychotic syndromes. The development in prison of auto- or hetero aggressive behaviours has also been observed. We report on a 24-years-old male who was incarcerated for violence and robbery. He worked as a plumber and had no medical history except hepatitis C and use of IV drugs. Temporal lobe epilepsy was diagnosed because of auditory hallucinations. Consequences of this behaviour are discussed. Although it can be difficult to link the behavioural disorder to the disease, we would like to suggest that his delinquency could have been prevented by appropriate medical care before incarceration.