Abstracts

Rationale: We aimed to evaluate the impact in social cognition and prefrontal functions in adults with partial onset seizures treated with eslicarbazepine. Methods: We prospectively assessed attentional-executive functions and theory of mind tasks in epilepsy patients before starting eslicarbazepine as add-on therapy and 3 to 6 months later. Quality of life, anxiety and depression were also assessed. Results: From the 29 patients evaluated at baseline, 26 completed the protocol. During the follow-up, in 10 of them eslicarbazepine was converted into a sequencial monotherapy. Mean age was 48.1 (14,9) yearsand 53% were females. 89% of patients were responders to treatment, using amedian dose of 800 mg [600-1200]. No seious adverse events were detected. A significantimproved inthe Faux-Pas task (p=0.004) and emotional recognition (p=0.015) of the theory of mind was observed. Moreover,improvements in TMT A (p=0.047), Stroop-test (p=0.024), percentage errors WCST (p=0.022), perseverative errors WCST (p=0.028) and Symbol d_x005F_xD9E9_t (p=0.011) tasks in the prefrontal function assessment were seen. There were also significant improvements in immediate memory (p=0.019), recognition of information (p=0.034) and total learning (p=0.034). The global quality of life also tended to improve (p=0.067). Other tendencies were also seen (Table 1). Conclusions: ESL may improve the global quality of life in patients with epilepsy not only due to the effect over the control of seizures, but for the positive effect over the prefrontal functions, memory and social cognition. Funding: --