Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141:1587-1589
Copyright © 1984 by American Psychiatric Association
The theme of death in complex partial seizures
DB Greenberg, FH Hochberg and GB Murray
The theme of death highlighted the depersonalization phenomena of four
patients with complex partial seizures. These patients became preoccupied
with death in association with psychomotor seizures, visual hallucinations,
and altered perception of time and reality. The episodic sense of being
dead or of having an appointment with death is a clue to the diagnosis of
recurrent complex partial seizures even without overt motor stigmata of
seizures. The syndrome differs from fear of death, steroid psychosis, the
"near death syndrome," and Cotard's syndrome. Adjustment of antiseizure
medication is an important therapeutic maneuver.
