Attentional disorders in patients with complex partial epilepsy.
A study of concentrated attention patterns in epileptic patients was conducted with the objectives: characterization of the patients' epileptic condition; assessment of the concentrated attention levels in epileptic and nonepileptic individuals; comparison of the attention levels of the two groups. An evaluation was performed of 50 adult outpatients with complex partial seizures and 20 non-epileptic individuals (comparative group) at the Neuroepilepsy Ambulatory Unit, State University of Campinas SP, Brazil.


METHODS
characterization of seizure types, frequency and duration; concentrated attention assessment (Concentrated Attention Test - Toulouse-Pi ron); comparison of the epileptic with non-epileptic individuals.


RESULTS
A statistically significant difference was observed between the groups with regard to Correct Response, Wrong Response and No Response. A difference was observed in relation to Time, but it was statistically insignificant. The epileptic patients presented inferior cognitive performance in relation to concentrated attention when compared with the non-epileptic individuals, findings compatible with the clinical complaints.
Stella
Florindo
F
Institute of Biosciences, Paulista State University - UNESP, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Maciel
Jayme Antunes
JA
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D017029:Epilepsy, Complex Partial / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors