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After a period when little notice was paid to the ictal state there has been recently a revival of interest in its relation to character problems. The author has made a study based on personal observation over a period of 12 years of 162 patients. Of these 50 had personality problems or anxiety states and were considered controls, the others had various ictal phenomena. The diagnosis was established not only by the history but also by EEG examination and by the response of the patient to anticonvulsive therapy, especially diphenylhydantoin. However, the author points out that an unsuccessful response to anticonvulsant therapy does not rule out epileptic equivalents.
There is given an extensive survey of the literature on the relationship between ictal phenomena and the temporal lobe-rhinencephalon-thalamus complex. Various types of equivalents are described with case histories. The role of the EEG is described