Is there a Difference in Cognition between Epileptic Subjects and Healthy Siblings?

Objective: To compare the cognitive status of epileptic patients diagnosed with focal epilepsy with unknown etiology (FEUE) or juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) compared to a healthy brother or sister and to correlate this cognitive status to the drug treatment administered (monotherapy or polytherapy) and the time of diagnosis of epilepsy (9 or fewer years or 10 or more years).

Material and Methods: An analytical, case-control, cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study was conducted to determine the cognitive status of patients with the diagnosis of FEUE or JME compared to a healthy sibling using the Community Scale Interview for Dementia (CSID). The data was captured in the Excel software to obtain results and analysis of all the items of the CSIDs that included orientation, memory, praxis, attention and calculation, and language. The sample was taken for convenience during November 2010 in the Neurology consultation of the Central Hospital “Dr. Ignacio Morones Prieto” in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. A total of 30 epileptic patients and 30 healthy siblings were included.

Results: 30 couples were studied, consisting of a patient diagnosed with FEUE or JME and a healthy control brother or sister with a + - 3 years difference in their age. The CSID results showed a difference of 1.7 in the language area in favor of healthy subjects, but differences of -0.13, -0.07 and -0.02 in the areas of memory, orientation and praxis, respectively. The analysis based on the treatment the patient had shown no statistically significant differences, supporting the hypothesis that there would be no difference in the cognitive items evaluated by the. The analysis according to the time of diagnosis pf epilepsy obtained p> of 0.05, reflecting that there are no differences in the cognitive status regardless of the time of diagnosis.

Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference in the areas of memory, praxis, language, orientation, attention and calculation when comparing the epileptic patient with FEUE or JME with a healthy brother regardless of the type of treatment received (monotherapy or polytherapy) or the evolution time since the diagnosis of epilepsy (9 or less years against 10 or more years).

Keywords:Focal epilepsy with unknown etiology (FEUE); Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME); Community-Scale interview for dementia (CSID); Cognitive status