Introduction

This study describes the specific neuropsychological abnormalities among children with epilepsy (CH-E) living in Georgia.

Methods

A cohort of CH-E and children without epilepsy (CH-NoE), aged 6–13 years, admitted to the epilepsy center of the Institute of Neurology and Neuropsychology from 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2015, was selected and investigated with a structured protocol. Neurological/epileptological assessments were made and neuropsychological testing was done on all study subjects.

Results

Abnormalities in praxis, verbal functions, verbal learning, visual-spatial matching, visual-motor ability, and fine motor skills, working memory, and phonological memory span were often revealed in CH-E as compared to CH-NoE. Early age of seizure onset, epilepsy duration, and anti-seizure medication (ASM) use, in combination with brain structural abnormalities on neuroimaging, and structural etiology were independent predictors of impaired functioning in various neuropsychological domains.

Discussion

More than half of children with epilepsy have a variety of cognitive impairments, which may increase with ASM therapy, especially when the cause of seizures is structural damage to the brain. Therefore, in the process of diagnosing epilepsy, evaluation of cognitive functions should become an integral part to ensure effective management of the disorder.

中文翻译：

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癫痫儿童神经认知问题的六年纵向研究

介绍

本研究描述了居住在佐治亚州的癫痫儿童 (CH-E) 的特定神经心理异常。

方法

选取 2010 年 1 月 1 日至 2015 年 12 月 31 日在神经病学和神经心理学研究所癫痫中心收治的 6-13 岁 CH-E 和无癫痫儿童 (CH-NoE) 进行队列研究，采用结构化协议。进行了神经学/癫痫学评估，并对所有研究对象进行了神经心理学测试。

结果

与 CH-NoE 相比，CH-E 在实践、语言功能、语言学习、视觉空间匹配、视觉运动能力和精细运动技能、工作记忆和语音记忆跨度方面经常出现异常。癫痫发作的早期年龄、癫痫持续时间和抗癫痫药物 (ASM) 的使用，以及神经影像学上的脑结构异常和结构病因是各种神经心理学领域功能受损的独立预测因素。

讨论

超过一半的癫痫患儿有多种认知障碍，ASM 治疗可能会加重这种情况，尤其是当癫痫发作的原因是大脑结构损伤时。因此，在癫痫诊断过程中，认知功能评估应成为确保有效管理癫痫症的一个组成部分。