Dynamics of Cognitive Decline in Patients with Epilepsy during the Course of Disease (using executive functions as an example)

Autor: Sokolova Lv, Zheleznova Ev, V V Kalinin, A. A. Zemlyanaya
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology. 48:83-89
ISSN: 1573-899X
0097-0549
Popis: Objectives. To identify the relationship between executive functions (EF), patients’ personality characteristics, and features of the course of disease. Materials and methods. A total of 105 patients with partial forms of epilepsy were studied. Mean age was 30.24 ± 8.67 years. Temporal forms were present in 61% of patients, frontal in 33%, and others in 6%. EF were studied using the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) in 25 of 105 patients of the study group. Patients were reinvestigated a mean 5.5 years later. Results. A relationship was found between decreased EF and patients’ age, duration of disease, and inability to work. Remission of seizures and its duration had positive effects on measures of EF. There were no connections with patients’ age at the debut of seizures, seizure severity, the number of drugs taken, psychopathological symptoms, or left-handedness. WCST values were worse in patients with temporal forms of epilepsy and patients with alexithymia. Studies of patients over time demonstrated a link between further decreases in EF and left-sided locations of epileptic foci and the absence of remission of seizures. No relationship was found between deficit of EF and the antiepileptic therapy used. Conclusions. These studies showed that deficit of EF could be seen in any form of epilepsy, that it correlates with disability, that it can be aggravated by personality and neurobiological features, and that it progresses in cases with persistence of seizures. These data indicate that epilepsy treatment tactics should seek remission to maintain cognitive potential and patients’ social functioning.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: