title: Behavioral psychophysiological intervention in a mentally retarded epileptic patient with brain lesion.
abstract: Behavioral psychophysiological treatment entailing Slow Cortical Potential (SCP) biofeedback training and behavioral self-control training was conducted with a 27-year-old male epileptic patient (seizures for 23 years) with Wechsler IQ 64 who underwent callosotomy. The patient had 12/week secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. The treatment, consisting of 43 SCP training sessions and 22 behavioral control sessions, yielded a highly significant reduction of seizure frequency to about 7.5/week; such a decrease had never been observed after administration of new anticonvulsant drugs, nor after the callosotomy. During SCP feedback training, the patient was able to produce highly-significant cortical differentiation of SCPs of about 4 microV. In addition, he developed several new behaviors indicating growing ability of self-perception and self-regulation. These findings suggest that a combination of SCP biofeedback with behavioral treatment of epilepsy can be used even in mentally retarded patients with organic brain disorders.
authors.affiliation: Epilepsy Center Kork, Kehl-Kork, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Holzapfel
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Strehl
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kotchoubey
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbaumer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012640:Seizures / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control; D014888:Wechsler Scales
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants