emotional processing in patients with early- and late-onset temporal lobe epilepsy

Objective: temporal lobe epilepsy (tle) could cause various emotional symptoms due to the damages imposed on the temporal lobe. this study aimed at comparing emotional processing between patients with early- and late-onset tle and a healthy group. methods: in a cross-sectional study, after a definitive diagnosis of tle, 60 patients were compared with 60 healthy controls without any epilepsy to identify emotional-processing styles in them. the research instruments were the emotional processing scale and the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition (dsm-5)-based psychiatric interview. the obtained data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance by spss. results: the present study results suggested significant differences in emotional processing between the investigated epileptic and non-epileptic groups (p<0.01). besides, emotional processing indicated significant differences in intrusion, the lack of attunement, and dissociation subscales between patients with early-onset tle, compared to those with late-onset tle. conclusion: the obtained data revealed more emotional processing dysfunction in patients affected by tle, compared to the non-epileptics. besides, in some subscales of emotional processing, there was more malfunctioning in the early-onset tle group, compared to the late-onset tle group.