title: Psychopathology in children before and after surgery for extratemporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the rates and types of psychiatric disorder in children before and after surgery for extratemporal epilepsy. Relationships between psychiatric morbidity and demographic/clinical variables were examined.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective case note review of 71 children undergoing extratemporal focal resection for drug resistant epilepsy in a specialist epilepsy surgery programme between 1997 and 2008. Psychiatric diagnoses were derived from pre- and postoperative assessments according to DSM-IV criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-one children (38 males, 33 females) were eligible for this study. Mean age (SD) at surgery was 9 (5) years. Frontal resections were performed in 73% of the children, parietal in 17%, and occipital in 10%. Mental health problems were present in 37 of 71 (52%) children pre- and/or postoperatively. A similar proportion of children had psychiatric diagnoses pre- and postoperatively: 31 of 71 (44%) and 32 of 71 (45%) respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Psychopathology is common in children with extratemporal epilepsy. In this sample, the impact of surgery on psychiatric symptoms was not predictable: some children were unchanged, others improved, and others acquired new psychiatric diagnoses postoperatively. Given the high rates of psychiatric disorder in this group of patients, detection and treatment of mental health needs may be important.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Department, UCL Institute of Child Health & Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: M Chiara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Colonnelli
authors.forename: J Helen
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: D'Argenzio
authors.forename: Rod C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pickles
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hannan
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Harkness
authors.forename: Isobel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Heyman
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000379:methods*; D011599:Psychopathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome