title: Psychopathology in epilepsy and learned helplessness.
abstract: It is proposed that epilepsy is a high psychological risk disorder because persons with epilepsy are vulnerable to the powerful behavioral ramifications of exposure to unpredictable, uncontrollable, aversive events. The most commonly reported psychopathologies in persons with epilepsy parallel those noted in humans and infrahuman organisms subjected to unpredictable/uncontrollable aversive events and it is suggested that Seligman's theory of learned helplessness provides a useful framework for interpreting and predicting psychologic dysfunctions in epilepsy.
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology*; D000374:Aggression; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological / Q000209:etiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology