Rolandic epilepsy and dyslexia Epilepsia rolândica e dislexia

Objective: Although benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) is an idiopathic, age-related epilepsy syndrome with favorable outcome, recent studies have shown impairment in specific neuropsychological tests. The objective of this study was to analyze the comorbidity between dyslexia and BECTS. Method: Thirty-one patients with clinical and electroencephalographic diagnosis of BECTS (group A) and 31 paired children (group B) underwent a language and neuropsychological assessment performed with several standardized protocols. Our findings were categorized as: a) dyslexia; b) other difficulties; c) without difficulties. Our results were compared and statistically analyzed. Results: Our data showed that dyslexia occurred in 19.4 % and other difficulties in 74.2 % of our patients. This was highly significant when compared with the control group (p,0.001). Phonological awareness, writing, reading, arithmetic, and memory tests showed a statistically significant difference when comparing both groups. Conclusion: Our findings show significant evidence of the occurrence of dyslexia in patients with BECTS