Chronic acoustic verbal hallucinations and temporal lobe epilepsy. EEG, qEEG and 18FDG PET case study
Abstract
25years old woman with chronic acoustic verbal hallucinations was investigated by 18PDG PET, EEG and quantitative EEG (qEEG). The pathological EEG recording with the frequent episodes of slow waves activity, sharp waves and SW complexes in the right temporal cortex indicated the simple partial temporal lobe epilepsy as the substrate for acoustic hallucinations.
This diagnosis was confirmed by a) decreased 18PDG uptake detected by PET (SPM99) in the comparison with control group, b) the increase of delta relative spectrum qEEG in the right temporal lobe, c) qEEG discordance in delta-theta spectrum in the same region, d) the psychopathology with prevailing religious and sexual content of hallucinations and delusions and the absence of negative symptoms, and e) partial neuropsychological deficit (verbal memory). The diagnosis of organic schizophorm disorder in temporal lobe epilepsy led to the change of treatment strategy (lamotrigin).
Our observation confirms the eligibility of the new methods as qEEG and PET (SPM) in the diagnostic proces s of the temporal lobe epilepsy with psychiatric symptoms