title: Executive functions in adolescents with idiopathic generalized epilepsy.
abstract: Disorders of executive functioning have recently been reported in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME); however, data on other syndromes of generalized idiopathic epilepsy (IGE) other than JME, especially in adolescence, are scarce. The aim of this study was to explore specific executive functions in a group of adolescents with IGE of short duration and to evaluate the possible factors that might influence these functions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Neuropsychological investigation of executive functions (the Verbal Fluency Test, the Five-Point Test, the Trail-Making Test, and the Stroop test) was performed in 59 patients aged 14-17 years and meeting the diagnostic criteria for IGE, and in the group of 59 age-matched controls without any history of epilepsy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The IGE group subjects scored worse than the controls in most of the executive function tests: phonemic (P=0.008) and semantic (P=0.001) word fluency, figural fluency (P=0.008), visual search and sequencing of numbers (P=0.001), and alternate number-letter sequencing (P=0.018). None of the test scores differed between the new-onset and the established IGE groups, or between the groups of cases with and without myoclonias. No relationship between executive functioning and gender, age, duration or activity of epilepsy, chronic use of treatment, or epileptiform discharges on electroencephalography was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Executive dysfunction was present in adolescents with JME and other syndromes of IGE, manifesting with generalized tonic-clonic seizures without myoclonias, despite short duration and benign course of epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania. giedregelziniene@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Giedrė
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gelžinienė
authors.forename: Giedrė
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jurkevičienė
authors.forename: Vitalija
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marmienė
authors.forename: Virginija
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Adomaitienė
authors.forename: Milda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Endzinienė
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests