Psychometric and Adaptive Abilities in Epilepsy with Differential Etiology

Abstract

SUMMARY Comparisons on an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests including the WAIS and Halstead's measures were made in the following four groups: (N = 51 in each group): 1, controls; 2, patients with verified brain damage but without epilepsy; 3, brain‐damaged patients with epilepsy matched for type of brain damage with the patients in Group 2; 4, patients with epilepsy of unknown etiology matched with the patients in Group 3 for type of seizures. Age and education matches were achieved across the four groups. The results of the study indicated that the presence of epileptic seizures was associated with significantly lower psychometric and adaptive ability levels than those found in normal control subjects. These test score differences occurred both in epileptic patients whose epilepsy was of unknown etiology and in epileptic patients with verified cerebral pathology. However, comparisons of two groups matched for type of pathology, but with and without seizures, did not result in additional significant impairment in the seizure group. These results suggested that epileptic manifestations, regardless of etiology, resulted in significant impairment of adaptive and psychometric abilities, but that in those epileptic patients in whom verified lesions could be established, the ictal episodes per se did not result in significant additional cognitive impairment when compared to non‐epileptic patients matched for type of pathology. RÉASUMÉA On a compareA les reAsultats d'une batterie de tests incluant le WAIS et le Halstead appliqueAe aG 4 groupes (N = 51 dans chaque groupe): 1, Groupe controCle; 2, malades organiques dont les leAsions du cerveau sont objectiveAes, ne preAsentant pas d'eApilepsie; 3, malades organiques avec eApilepsie, apparieAs en ce qui concerne le type de leAsions ceAreAbrales avec les malades du Groupe 2; 4, malades avec eApilepsie d'eAtiologie inconnue, apparieAs avec les malades du Groupe 3 en ce qui concerne le type de crises. Les 4 groupes ont eAteA apparieAs en ce qui concerne l'aCge et le niveau culturel. Les reAsultats de cette eAtude ont montreA que les groupes qui preAsentaient des crises eApileptiques avaient des reAsultats significativement plus bas et des capaciteAs d'adaptation moindres que le groupe controCle de normaux. Ceci se retrouve aG la fois dans le groupe qui preAsente une eApilepsie d'eAtiologie inconnue et dans celui dont l'atteinte ceAreAbrale est suCre. Cependant, si on compare les deux groupes organiques apparieAs par le type de pathologie, l'un preAsentant des crises, l'autre non, on ne constate pas de diffeArence entre ces deux groupes. Nous pouvons dire que les manifestations eApileptiques d'eAtiologie quelconque entrainent un affaiblissement significatif des possibiliteAs d'adaptation et de l'efficience aux tests psychomeAtriques. Mais, si on compare les eApileptiques qui ont des leAsions ceAreAbrales connues et les malades organiques non eApileptiques, ces deux groupes eAtant apparieAs en ce qui concerne le type de pathologie, on ne constate pas de diffeArenc...

The longitudinal and interactive effects of HIV status, stimulant use, and host genotype upon neurocognitive functioning

“…T-scores for all tests comprising a domain are averaged to obtain a domain T-score. A total of six domain T-scores were derived, including Learning & Memory (derived from the learning and delayed recall trials of the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test(Osterrieth 1944, Rey 1964) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test(Rey 1941)), Processing Speed (Stroop Color Naming(Comalli et al 1962) and Symbol Digit Modalities Test(Smith 1982)), Motor (Grooved Pegboard(Klove & Matthews 1966)), Executive (Stroop Interference(Comalli et al 1962) and Trail Making Test-Form B(Reitan 1958)), and Sustained Attention (CalCAP(Miller 1990)). Domain scores were used as neurocognitive phenotypes, each in separate analyses.…”

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised in the Evaluation of Anterior Temporal Lobectomy Candidates

“…The Wechsler Intelligence Scales have long been of interest to the epilepsy research community. The various Wechsler scales have been used in epilepsy populations to derive an understanding of the effects of age at onset of epilepsy (Dikmen et al, 1975O'Leary et al, 1983;Dodrill, 1993), years with seizures (Dodrill, 1992), lifetime number of seizures (Dodrill, 1986), etiology (Collins and Lennox, 1947;Klove and Matthews, 1966;Matthews and Klove, 1967), seizure frequency Seidenberg et al, 1981a;Giordani et al, 1983), seizure type (Collins and Lennox, 1947;Quadfasel and Pruyser, 1955;Parsons and Kemp, 1960;Matthews and Klove, 1967;Bolter et al, 1981;Farwell et al, 1985;Giordani et al, 1993), interictal EEG abnormalities (Collins and Lennox, 1947;Klove, 1959;Parsons and Kemp, 1960 and Fitzhugh, 1962;Klove and White, 1963;Pihl, 1968;Dodrill and Wilkus, 1976;Wilkus and Dodrill, 1976;Schneider et al, 1993), gender (Collins and Lennox, 1947;Kupke et al, 1979), the effects of repeated testing (Dodrill and Troupin, 1975;Seidenberg et al, 1981b), surgical outcome (Chelune, 1991), and the factor structure of the Wechsler scales in patients with epilepsy (Reed and Fitzhugh, 1967;Richards et al, 1980;Bornstein et al, 1988). The Wechsler scales have clearly facilitated major contributions to understanding of t...…”

Mental Deterioration in Epilepsy

“…Tarter (1972) and Dodrill (1981) have summarized the psychometric data related to the effect upon cognitive function of seizures with and without known cause. Known etiology appeared responsible for no more than a 5to 10-point IQ drop when years of education were not controlled for (Arieff and Yacorzynski, 1942;Collins, 1951;Lennox and Lennox, 1960;Sands and Price, 1947), and no more than five points when this variable was at least partially controlled for (KIZve and Matthews, 1966). The last of these workers also administered the Halstead-Reitan battery to patients and again found that a known etiology for seizures was associated with poorer performance (see also Matthews and Klcjve, 1967).…”