Psychosomatic Medicine 21:96-105 (1959)
© 1959 American Psychosomatic Society

Psychological Factors Involved in Bizarre Seizures

Report of Four Cases

¹ Massachusetts General Hospital; Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
² Massachusetts General Hospital; Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.

Attention has been directed to a group of patients with seizures who have major psychological problems. We believe that only by a team approach, via psychiatrist and neurologist, can effective treatment be accomplished. Since the patient may make use of physical needs as a defense against psychiatric exploration, a clear division of roles is essential.

The term hysteroid epilepsy has been opposed because it offers a confused picture of the patient's difficulties and implies that seizures and their psychological concomitants occur only in hysterical personality structures.

The theoretical concept is proposed that emotional conflict in susceptible individuals results in a lowering of the seizure threshold beyond a certain critical level resulting in seizures.