title: Neuropsychological and psychiatric outcomes in poorly controlled idiopathic generalized epilepsy.
abstract: The neuropsychological and psychiatric outcomes of patients with poorly controlled idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) have not been well characterized. The current study aimed to compare these outcomes to a group of patients with medically refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). A retrospective review of patients admitted to the epilepsy monitoring unit identified 19 patients with IGE and 23 patients with TLE who underwent neuropsychological and psychiatric evaluations. Patients with IGE required a longer time to complete the Trail Making Tests and had lower performance IQ compared to patients with TLE. Despite a higher burden of convulsions, patients with IGE had lower depression scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) than patients with TLE. In the group with IGE, the BDI-II scores were inversely correlated with epilepsy duration. These findings indicate that patients with IGE have lower performance IQ, impaired performance on tests of executive functioning, and lower depression scores compared to patients with TLE, implicating different pathophysiological processes.
authors.affiliation: The Edward B. Bromfield Epilepsy Service, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA. rsarkis@partners.org
authors.forename: Rani A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sarkis
authors.forename: Alison Camille
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Pietras
authors.forename: Angeles
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Gaston
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baslet
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dworetzky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000150:complications*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014145:Trail Making Test
keywords: Cognition; Depression; Idiopathic generalized epilepsy; Medically refractory; Neuropsychology; Outcomes; Psychiatry; Temporal lobe epilepsy