[Extraordinary cause of a self-induced focal epilepsy]

Epilepsies and psychiatric disorders such as psychoses are known to have reciprocal influence. There are problems in patient compliance and pharmacological interactions between the drugs used for treatment. We report an unusual, self-induced, focal, symptomatic epilepsy in a hitherto unrevealed schizophrenic psychosis. The interdisciplinary treatment of three different departments was necessary. The initial symptom of a diffuse frontal headache and the patient's penetration of his own skull in an attempt at self-treatment led to the development of a frontal abscess around a foreign body and the described focal epilepsy.