Focus laterality and interictal psychiatric disorder in temporal lobe epilepsy

The current study was carried out in order to find the possible associations between foci laterality and kind of prevailed psychopathological disorder in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). One hundred and ten patients with TLE (40 men and 70 women) were included into the study. Among all studied patients the left-focus activity was detected in 67 patients, right-sided foci-in 43 patients. No relationships between chronology variables of epilepsy (age, age at epilepsy onset, epilepsy duration) and different subtypes of psychopathology in studied patients were revealed. Diagnosis of organic affective disorder was observed more frequently in patients with right-sided foci, while diagnosis of organic anxiety disorder-in patients with left-sided foci (chi(2)=7.0, p=0.0081; Fisher's exact test p=0.018). The comparison of dysphoric disorder with anxiety or affective disorder could not reveal any statistically significant association with focus laterality. Obtained results are discussed in terms of association between the different subtypes of studied psychiatric disorders and foci laterality in patients with TLE.