title: Influence of anxiety on memory performance in temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: This study examined the degree to which anxiety contributed to inconsistent material-specific memory difficulties among 243 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy from the Multisite Epilepsy Study. Visual memory performance on the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) was poorer for those with high versus low levels of anxiety but was not found to be related to the TLE side. The verbal memory score on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was significantly lower for patients with left-sided TLE than for patients with right-sided TLE with low anxiety levels but equally impaired for those with high anxiety levels. These results suggest that we can place more confidence in the ability of verbal memory tests like the CVLT to lateralize to left-sided TLE for those with low anxiety levels, but that verbal memory will be less likely to produce lateralizing information for those with high anxiety levels. This suggests that more caution is needed when interpreting verbal memory tests for those with high anxiety levels. These results indicated that RCFT performance was significantly affected by anxiety and did not lateralize to either side, regardless of anxiety levels. This study adds to the existing literature which suggests that drawing-based visual memory tests do not lateralize among patients with TLE, regardless of anxiety levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: franklin.brown@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Franklin C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Walt Disney Pavilion - Florida Hospital for Children, Winter Park, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Westerveld
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA.
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Langfitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Marla
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Hamada
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamid
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinnar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sperling
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Orrin
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Devinsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Barr
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tracy
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Masur
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Carl W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Bazil
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: franklin.brown@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Susan S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Spencer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications*; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Anxiety; Temporal lobe epilepsy; Verbal memory; Visual memory