Efficacy of carbamazepine in assaultive patients with frontal lobe dysfunction

1. A double-blind pilot study using a reversal design was conducted to examine the efficacy of carbamazepine in four cases of assaultiveness associated with frontal lobe dysfunction compared to five control cases. 2. Frontal lobe patients who received carbamazepine demonstrated a pattern of improvement on all cognitive, affective, and behavioral measures. This was followed by return to pretreatment level (measures of assaultiveness, depression, and general cerebral efficiency) or sustained improvement (measures of frontal lobe efficiency) when carbamazepine was discontinued. Control subjects showed only minimal differences across testing.