WHEN A CHILD HAS EPILEPSY AND ATTENTION PROBLEMS: THE ROLE OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in childhood.1 Prevalence estimates suggest that approximately 5 % of children will have at least one seizure in their lifetime2 with approximately 25 % of these children subsequently meeting formal diagnostic criteria for epilepsy.3 Neurocognitively, these children have been shown to be at-risk for a variety of neuropsychological deficits including deficits in overall intellectual functioning, memory, attention, and executive functioning.1 Research that has followed these children throughout the lifespan provides evidence that childhood epilepsy directly affects outcomes in later adulthood. In controlled investigations, groups of children with epilepsy that were followed for thirty years or longer were shown to have a number of problems in a wide range of life outcomes. Specifically, these adults displayed difficulties in areas such as marriage, employment, income, independent living status, children, and psychiatric status.4,5,6 These findings are all the more powerful because they do no