Cognitive Impairment in Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsies

摘要

Background: Idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs) are defined by normal imaging as well as normal psychomotor development; yet, cognitive impairments have been described in these syndromes. Objective: To assess the cognitive impairments in IGE patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted on 30 patients with IGEs with ages 16.97±4.47 years and 30 matched healthy volunteers. Patients were subjected to clinical evaluation, electroencephalogram (EEG), neuropsychological battery to assess attention, memory, mental speed, information processing, and visuomotor perception. Results: IGE patients performed significantly poorer than the controls in almost all the tested cognitive domains. Patients with GTCs showed the lowest performance in expressive attention task in comparison to patients with JME and CAE, while JME patients showed the poorest performance in executive functions. Impaired performance in most of tested domains correlated with higher seizure frequency, longer disease duration, and less years of education. Attention was poorer in patients with interictal discharge compared to those with normal interictal EEG. Conclusion: IGE patients may exhibit impaired cognitive function, despite having normal intelligence. The observed cognitive impairments correlated mostly with disease duration, seizure frequency, and educational level. [Egypt J Neurol Psychiat Neurosurg.  2014; 51(2): 215-221] Key Words: Idiopathic generalized epilepsy, cognitive functions.