epilepsy and anger

[mlasater]

I'm a school counselor dealing with a child (4th grade) who has outbursts of rage.  He seems unable to control his anger but is aware of what he is doing and seems to be legitimately sorry when he recovers.  He doesn't blame other children for these outbursts but seems willing to take responsibility for whatever he does.  Myself and several others have observed this child in a school setting on several occasions and none of us has been able to find any kind of precursor to the behavior.  There doesn't seem to be a trigger.  Besides assaulting other students he is also prone to head banging.  His parents are experiencing similar behaviors at home and are just as much at a lose as we are.  These are fairly new behaviors or at least the behaviors are new to us, and his parents have said that they haven't seen this level of anger before.  This child also has epilepsy.  I don't know the type or age of onset.  Could there be a connection between the epilepsy and the anger?  Could this be a side effect of an epilepsy drug?  The child's doctor doesn't seem to think so but without a clear trigger for his behavior I'm inclined to think the behavior is organic and not environmental in its origin.

[hilarijoe]

A related discussion, Are you sure seizure medication isn't to blame? was started.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It's unlikely that the behavior is associated with this child's medication, but it is very possible that the behavior is associated with the seizure disorder. I'd certainly recommend consideration of adjustment in his medication regimen.