Abstracts

Rationale: Hippocampal atrophy (HA) in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) has been associated with a variety of psychiatric comorbidity. Whether atrophy has an influence on 'personality traits' remains a source of great debate. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Version 2 (MMPI-2) is a commonly used instrument to generate a psychological profile. It includes 10 clinical scales. The purpose of this study was to establish whether the presence of symptomatic scales (those with scores > 2 SD)were more likely to occur among patients with TLE with HA. Methods: 117 patients with TLE who were undergoing a presurgical evaluation had a high-resolution MRI of the brain in which volumetric measurements of the HA was conducted by one author (TS). All patients completed the MMPI-2. Scores of the 10 clinical scales were determined for each patient and those with a score >65 (> 2 SD) were coded as symptomatic. The association between HA and symptomatic scales of the MMPI-2 was investigated with chi-square statistics. Results: Among the 117 patients, 57 (49%) were men. 67 (57%) had HA. There were (mean (SD) of 3.1 1.2 symptomatic scales/ patient. The prevalence of each symptomatic scales among the 117 patients was: Scale 1 (hypochondriasis): 34%; scale 2 (depression): 52%; scale 3 (hysteria): 32%; scale 4 (psychopathic deviate): 20%; scale 5 (masculinity/femininity: 12%; scale 6 (paranoia): 20.5%; scale 7 (psychasthenia): 28%; scale 8 (schizophrenia): 37.5%; scale 9 (hypomania): 21.5%; scale 0 (social introversion): 16%. Scale 4 was the only symptomatic scale significantly associated with HA (Fisher Exact, p = 0.009, 2-sided) Conclusions: HA in patients with TLE does not appear to be associated with most of the abnormal personality traits, in particular those associated with depression (scale 2) and anxiety (scale 7). Abnormal personality traits are most likely the result of multiple factors.