Personality features in patients of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis

Objective: The present investigation has been designed to assess the personality features in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS). Methods: Twenty-six patients undergoing presurgical evaluation for treatment of intractable MTLE-HS, 23 patients with depression and 25 healthy subjects were included in the study. Self-report measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory-BDI) and anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory-BAI), and an empirically-derived measure of psychopathology (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-MMPI) were used to evaluate the subjects. Results: MMPI subscales of hysteria, paranoia, social inversion, and depression subscales were higher in patients with MTLE-HS and with depression relative to controls. There were higher scores for females with epilepsy on the Mf (masculinity/femininity) subscale of the MMPI relative to males with epilepsy and the other two control groups. Patients with epilepsy and depression had higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms compared to healthy controls. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that depression may have some effect on personality changes seen in epilepsy, and female patients with epilepsy seem to have a tendency towards a masculine attitude. New controlled studies with homogeneous study samples and with specific scales designed for patients with epilepsy have yet to be conducted.