Psychopathological profile in patients with severe bilateral hippocampal atrophy and temporal lobe epilepsy: evidence...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Neurology

Background:

• Bilateral symmetrical hippocampal atrophy (BHA) is linked to neuropsychiatric disorders like depression and schizophrenia.
• Its causal role versus being an epiphenomenon requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test if severe hippocampal volume loss is causally relevant to psychiatric syndromes.
• To assess psychopathology in patients with severe BHA and compare it to controls.

Main Methods:

• Compared patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and severe BHA (hippocampal volumes >3 SD below mean) to matched TLE controls with normal volumes.
• Assessed psychopathology using the Present State Examination and Neurobehavioral Inventory by blinded psychiatrists.

Main Results:

• Both groups showed a high prevalence of psychiatric syndromes, with no significant differences between them.
• The Neurobehavioral Inventory revealed a pattern resembling Geschwind syndrome in patients with BHA, particularly when caregivers characterized them.
• No increased prevalence of specific psychiatric syndromes was found in relation to BHA.

Conclusions:

• Bilateral symmetrical hippocampal atrophy (BHA) does not appear to increase the prevalence of specific psychiatric syndromes.
• Specific symptoms, such as hypergraphia and hyposexuality characteristic of Geschwind syndrome, may be pathologically related to hippocampal atrophy.