Pediatric Neurology Part I: Chapter 71. Cognitive disorders in pediatric epilepsy

Pediatric Neurology Part I: Chapter 71. Cognitive disorders in pediatric epilepsy
ISBN-10
012807776X
ISBN-13
9780128077764
Series
Pediatric Neurology Part I
Category
Medical
Pages
892
Language
English
Published
2013-04-24
Publisher
Elsevier Inc. Chapters
Authors
M. Lassonde, I. Jambaqué, C. Pinabiaux

Description

Childhood epilepsy may cause cognitive disorders and the intellectual quotient is indeed not normally distributed in epileptic children, a fair proportion of whom show an IQ in the deficient range. Some epileptic syndromes happen during vulnerability periods of brain maturation and interfere with the development of specific cognitive functions. This is the case for the Landau–Kleffner syndrome, which generally appears during speech development and affects language. Similarly, West syndrome – or infantile spasms – is an epileptogenic encephalopathy appearing during the first years of life and induces a major delay in social and oculo-motor development. Specific impairments can also be identified in partial childhood epilepsies in relation with seizure focus localization. For instance, left temporal and frontal epilepsies are frequently associated with verbal impairments. Moreover, episodic memory disorders have been described in children suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy whereas executive deficits (planning, self-control, problem solving) have been reported in frontal lobe epilepsy. In most cases, including its mildest forms, childhood epilepsy induces attention deficits, which may affect academic achievement. These observations militate in favor of individual neuropsychological assessments as well as early interventions in order to provide the child with an optimal individualized treatment program.

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