Abstracts

Rationale: A population based study of epilepsy in children from a Swedish county was published in 2006 (Larsson K, Eeg-Olofsson O. Eur J Paediatr Neurol 2006;10:107-13). From this material well-functioning children treated for epilepsy in January 1997 (n=47) were invited 10 years later to participate in a study to investigate the outcome from medical, social and psychological aspects. The first part, in which 45 individuals participated, described mainly the medical outcome, while this second part describes social and psychological outcome. Methods: An integral system of multi-informant assessment , ASEBA (Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment), was used to assess diverse aspects of adaptive and maladaptive functioning and is a further development of behaviour checklists. Check lists and self-reports were sent out to the 45 individuals and their parents. Results: The response rate was 69%. Thus, 31 individuals, 19 females and 12 males aged 11-22 years were evaluated. All information received was computer scored. Seven were <18 years (group 1) and 24 ? 18 years (group 2). At the end of the 10-year period 21 (68%) were seizure free. Four children were still in nine-year compulsory school, 10 attended senior high school, and 17 had passed this stage. Out of the last-mentioned, eight studied at university, six were employed, and 3 sick-listed. Seven types of behavioural/emotional problems were found (23%), one in group 1 had four different problems, and one in group 2 had two. Internalizing symptoms as anxious/withdrawn-depressed and somatic complaints were seen in both groups. An externalizing symptom as aggressive behaviour was found in group 1. Attention and thought problems were found in group 2 and social problems in group 1. Conclusions: In well-functioning individuals with childhood onset epilepsy there are few deviating results in just a few individuals. Maladaptive functioning, especially internalizing symptoms, was found. Such symptoms are often found in longitudinal population based studies of both children and adolescents with epilepsy.