Lithium therapy in comorbid temporal lobe epilepsy and cycloid psychosis.

The treatment of post-ictal psychosis has foundered on uncertainty in diagnosis of psychotic phenotypes, and equivocal efficacy of first and second generation antipsychotics. This article presents a case history of comorbid temporal lobe epilepsy and psychosis, suggests the applicability of the continental, cycloid psychosis diagnostic conceptualization to post-ictal psychoses, and demonstrates the efficacy of lithium in their treatment. Clinical studies of comorbidity of epilepsy and psychosis offer great potential as a basis for modelling brain-mind relationships, and neuropsychiatric nosology, pathophysiology and treatment.