Abstracts

Rationale: Recently there have been publications about mild neuropsychological deficits in benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS). The aim of this study is to evaluate neuropsychological functions in children from community with BECTS with new onset seizures (<2yrs) and to correlate with quality of life measures.Methods: Eight children with BECTS were studied from University Hospital of the University of Sao Paulo, a secondary care regionalized facility located in a middle-low income district. All families signed informed consent and the children performed neurologic, EEG and neuropsychological evaluation consisting of Raven’s Special Progressive Matrices, Wechsler Children Intelligence Scale-WISC III, ACID Profile-WISC III, Trail Making Test A/B, Stroop Test, Bender Visuo-Motor Test, Rey Complex Figure, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test-RAVLT, Boston Naming Test, Fluency Verbal for phonological and also conceptual patterns–FAS/Animals and Hooper Visual Organization Test. For academic achievement, we used a Brazilian test named “Teste do Desempenho Escolar”, which evaluates ability to read, write and calculate according to school grade. We used a Portuguese Version (Maia et al., Epilepsy & Behavior 2006;9:503–9)of Impact of Childhood Illness Scale (ICIS) to evaluate the quality of life. This general instrument answered by the parents evaluates 4 domains in health: physic, psychological, socio-familial and cognitive-educational ones.Results: There were 7 boys and 1 girl, with ages ranging from 7.5–13.5yrs. All were literate, attended regular schools and scored in median/superior range for IQ, but there was discrepancy between the verbal and performance subtests (mean difference of 20 points). There were low scores for attention in different modalities, mainly in sustained and inhibitory attention as well as for evocative memory to learn facts (Information subtest-WISC-III). Executive functions showed qualitative deficits in activity planning, mostly observed in Rey Complex Figure copy and in WISC III Maze Test. Reading and writing skills were bellow average for school grade. Quality of life evaluation showed mean general health score of 82.5% and the following specific domain means: 69% in physic, 75.5% in psychological, 88% in socio-familial and 86.8% in cognitive-educational aspects.Conclusions: Although there were neuropsychological dysfunctions in these community children with BECTS, the main worries of parents were in the physical domain of quality of life inventory. This probably reflects the impact of epilepsy diagnosis, when even in such a benign epileptic condition with low recurrence rates, the families and consequently the patients suffer a burden in healthy quality of life. Although this is a sample from middle-low income community, in which educational expectations might be low, it reflects that neuropsychological deficits of these patients are neglected by the families because of the impact of the diagnosis. This reflects the urgent need for educational programs about epilepsy in the community.