Health Dictionary
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Geschwind syndrome
Introduction
Geschwind syndrome, also known as Waxman-Geschwind syndrome is a characteristic personality syndrome consisting of symptoms such as circumstantiality (excessive verbal output, stickiness, hypergraphia), altered sexuality (usually hyposexuality), and intensified mental life (deepened cognitive and emotional responses) is present in some epilepsy patients. There has also been recent suggestions to extend the list of symptoms to include things such as guilt and paranoia for example. This syndrome is particularly associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. For identification, the term “Geschwind syndrome” has been suggested as a name for this group of behavioral phenomena. There has currently been both support [1] and criticism[2] [3] in suggestion of this syndrome. Currently the strongest support arises from many clinicians who describe and attempt to classify patients with seizures with these personality features. More studies are needed to confirm or deny that the Geschwind syndrome represents a specific epilepsy/psychiatric disorder. It was named after the two people who first characterized the syndrome: Norman Geschwind and Stephen Waxman.
References and External Links
- J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 14:155-160, May 2002 Beyond Wernicke’s A Lexicon of Eponyms in Psychiatry David Bresch, M.D.
- Waxman SG, Geschwind N: The interictal behavior syndrome of temporal lobe epilepsy. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1975; 32:1580-1586
- http://www.nchicha.com/cupofchicha/archives/001834.shtml
- http://www.epilepsy.com/articles/ar_1064250059.html