Study Of The Cognition In6-13Years Old Children With Epilepsy In Regular School

Objective To study the cognitive function.correlation and the impact on quality of life in epileptic children aged6-13years old in regular school.Method Cognitive functions of172children with kinds of types of epilepsy were measured using a computerized neuropsychological test battery including six items,(i. e., Raven’s progressive matrices, choice reaction time, simple substraction,word-rhyming, three-dimensional mental rotation,as well as number comparision tasks), Their scores across the neuropsychological measures were compared with172healthy control from the general population strictly matched for age, sex and the region accepting education. In order to investigate the emotional and behavioral condition,172children with kinds of types of epilepsy underwent neuropsychological assessment with the Depression Self-rating Scale for Children、the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders and the ADHD Rating Scale-Ⅳ,an18-items parent-rated questionaire based on the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, the quality of life was measured in105cases by the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31). The cognition score between the two groups of the epilepsy and control children were compared relatively using t-test,Χ2test and general liner logistic analysis. adjusted with age, gender and educational region, we determine which variables were associated with cognition impairement, and the impact on quality of life.Result:(1)After adjusting for age, gender, and education region, children with epilepsy performed significantly statistically worse than healthy control on5of6cognitive tasks,(i. e., Raven’s progressive matrices, choice reaction time, simple substraction, number comparision, as well as word-rhyming tasks), p<0.001.There was no difference in the score of the three-dimensional mental rotation between the two groups, p>0.05.(2) When an impairment index was calculated,44.2%patients had at least one abnormal score on the test battery, compared with14.5%of healthy volunteers, there was statistically differences between the two groups, Χ2=36.5, p<0.001.(3) Children with new onset epilepsy before the treatment with anti-epilepstic drugs performed as well significantly statistically worse than healthy control on5of6cognitive tasks,(i. e., Raven’s progressive matrices, choice reaction time, simple substraction, number comparision, as well as word-rhyming tasks), p<0.001There was no difference in the score of the three-dimensional mental rotation between the two groups, p>0.05.(4) Cognitive performance was not related to the age of onset, type of epilepsy, therapy duration or comorbid emotional and behavior disorders, p>0.05.(5)105cases filled in the QOLIE-31questionaire, the total score of the quality of life in group without cognitive impairment and psychical conditions was highest (60.5+0.9),and the total score decreased in groups of epileptic children with only cognition impairment (58.7±1.0) and with only emotional and behavioral comorbidities (54.9±0.9), the lowest total score was found in group with cognitive impairment and psychical conditions (54.6±1.5), there were extremely statistically differences in the groups, p<0.001.Conclusion:Almost one-half of the children with epilepsy accepting regular education had at least one abnormal score in the battery tests. Cognitive impairment was not related to the epilepsy-related or psychical variables. Newly diagnosed untreated patients with epilepsy are cognitively compromised before the start of antiepileptic drug medication, there is potential some kind brain mechanism for further study. Cognitive impairment and psychical disorders require further attention and essentail therapy, which is important to the improvement of the quality of life in epileptic children...