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Review
. 2020 Oct:111:107178.
doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107178. Epub 2020 Jun 22.

Hysteria or epilepsy?

Emmanuel Drouin  1 , Yann Péréon  2 , Patrick Hautecoeur  3
Affiliations
Review

Hysteria or epilepsy?

Emmanuel Drouin et al. Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Hysteria and epilepsy have long been compounded by the term "hysteria-epilepsy" among neurologists and physchiatrists, including Jean Martin Charcot. In a 114 page unpublished manuscript written circa 1815, Jean-Baptiste Louyer Villermay, French physician and student of Philippe Pinel, considered the signs that would differentiate hysteria from epilepsy. This differential diagnosis approach was proposed long before Charcot's lecture in 1868 at Salpêtrière hospital.

Keywords: Hysteria; Louyer Villermay; epilepsy; history of neurology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest Authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this study.