Children with epilepsy -: psychiatric and neuropsychological results in comparison to healthy children

Questions: Do children with epilepsy exhibit psychiatric, intellectual or motoric symptoms compared to healthy children? How relevant is the type of epilepsy? Methods: Children with diagnosed epilepsy aged 6 - 15 years were investigated by means of an established neuropsychological test program. Under anticonvulsive therapy the children were free from epileptic seizures. Exclusion criteria were neurological diseases and mental retardation. A structured interview was performed and psychiatric symptoms were registered. Tests performed included non-verbal intelligence, general motor skills, concentration ability, speech, mathematics, and find motor skills. Results: Altogether 102 children with epilepsy (absences N = 27, grand-mal N = 31, Rolandi N = 17, symptomatic focal N = 27) and a control group of healthy children of the same size were investigated. In children with epilepsy no psychiatric symptoms were observed. In all tests applied, children with epilepsy obtained poorer neuropsychological results than the healthy control group. Children with primarily generalised epilepsy exhibited markedly poorer results in data processing, speech, and fine motor skills as compared to the healthy group. Children with symptomatic focal epilepsy showed the poorest results with regard to all parameters tested. Conclusion: In the psychological test performed, children with epilepsy exhibited distinct differences compared to the control group, but no differences in the psychiatric evaluation.