Negative Symptoms in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Abstract

Negative but not positive symptoms were more prevalent in temporal lobe epilepsy patients than in healthy comparison subjects. Negative symptoms were independent of current and past depression and were associated with neuropsychological deficits exceeding the general cognitive morbidity associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and with quantitative MRI indices suggesting greater cerebral atrophy.

The Emerging Architecture of Neuropsychological Impairment in Epilepsy

“…Negative symptoms including affective flattening, alogia and avolition, anergia, apathy, anhedonia, and loss of social drive have been reported in patients with TLE 116,117. These patients also exhibit cognitive and psychosocial correlates that are not seen in patients with TLE without negative symptoms, but neuroimaging correlations with cortical regions were nonspecific and limited only to increased total CSF 116,117.…”

“…These patients also exhibit cognitive and psychosocial correlates that are not seen in patients with TLE without negative symptoms, but neuroimaging correlations with cortical regions were nonspecific and limited only to increased total CSF 116,117. Geary and coworkers118 hypothesized that basal ganglia and anterior cingulate regions of interest play a role in the expression of negative symptoms in epilepsy and compared a matched group of TLE patients with and without negative symptoms with healthy controls (N = 22 per group).…”

Quality of life is social – Towards an improvement of social abilities in patients with epilepsy

“…There is also evidence of negative symptoms, one of the psychopathological features of schizophrenia, in patients with epilepsy, which are associated with abnormalities in brain structure and cognition, similar to that found in schizophrenia [71]. These negative symptoms include alogia, avolition, anhedonia and inattention, which are independent of current and past depression [72]. While these negative symptoms are associated with a range of psychosocial impairments in schizophrenia, they have also been found to be linked to increased psychosocial morbidity and poorer quality of life in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy [72].…”

“…These negative symptoms include alogia, avolition, anhedonia and inattention, which are independent of current and past depression [72]. While these negative symptoms are associated with a range of psychosocial impairments in schizophrenia, they have also been found to be linked to increased psychosocial morbidity and poorer quality of life in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy [72]. However, it should also be remembered that schizophrenia differs considerably to epilepsy in many ways.…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to address these and promote an intervention where the person is an active participant and the program is individually meaningful for them and their lives, congruent with their expectations and in keeping with their desired goal or goals. Furthermore, an approach which addresses social functioning should itself be motivating in that it is interesting, satisfying and encourages social interaction naturally and in its own right [71,72].…”