Behavioral profile and social competence in temporal lobe epilepsy of adolescence

A group of 26 adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy was compared with a matched control group of 26 adolescents with chronic bronchial asthma as well as with a group of 90 healthy adolescents, using the social competence measure and the behavior profile of the Child Behavior Checklist. Both chronically ill groups exhibited more social and behavioral problems than the healthy adolescents but were similar to each other on the social and behavioral profiles. The one area in which the temporal lobe epilepsy and asthmatic groups differed from one another was that of "schizoid" psychopathology in male subjects.