English

Noun

hypergraphia ‎(uncountable)

1. (psychiatry) A behavioural condition characterised by an intense desire to write, associated with changes in the temporal lobes due to epilepsy or chemical changes.
   • 1994, Thomas J. Csordas, 12: Words from the Holy People: a case study in cultural phenomenology, Thomas J. Csordas (editor), Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self, page 280,

     Two features of the interictal behavior syndrome are relevant: hypergraphia or the tendency to write compulsively and often repetitively, and verbosity or loquaciousness, the tendency to be overly talkative, rambling, and circumstantial in speech.

   • 1996, Michael R. Trimble, Biological Psychiatry, page 279,

     There is some suggestion that hypergraphia is associated with non-dominant hemisphere temporal lobe disturbances (Trimble, 1986c).

   • 2009, Joseph M. Tonkonogy, Antonio E. Puente, Localization of Clinical Syndromes in Neuropsychology and Neuroscience, page 559,

     Two cases of mania and hypergraphia in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy were reported by Sanders and Mathews (1994). In the first case, a 58-year-old right-handed man suffered a ruptured right middle cerebral artery aneurism, which required a craniotomy. During interictal periods, the patient demonstrated hypergraphia, as well as several episodes of alternating manic and mildly depressive phases.

Related terms

• hypergraphic

See also

• hypergraphy