Abstracts

The age specific incidence of epilepsy appears to be highest during old age. Comorbidities of seizures in the elderly are expected to differ from those in younger patients. To explore these differences, we examined the prevalence of cognitive loss, depression and sleep disorders in elderly patients with epilepsy., Subjects were recruited from the Epilepsy Management Center at Montefiore Medical Center, and the Einstein Aging Study, an NIH-funded longitudinal study of elderly individuals. Cases were [gt]= 65 years of age with a diagnosis of epilepsy confirmed by an epileptologist, and were paired with age and gender matched controls without a history of seizures. Testing administered to all subjects included the Blessed Information Memory and Concentration (BIMC) test; Prime-MD Depression and Anxiety Scale; and Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale., Data were analyzed for 64 subjects. Cases with epilepsy had significantly higher mean BIMC scores (6.3) than controls (1.2) (p[lt]0.0001). Mean Prime-MD Depression scores were significantly worse for cases (4.2) than controls (.79) (p=0.006) with six of 32 cases (18%) meeting screening criteria for depression, while anxiety scores were not significantly different. Cases demonstrated significantly poorer sleep scores than controls in the categories of somnolence (p=0.009) and shortness of breath/headache (p=0.021) scales., In our population, elderly individuals with epilepsy had reduced cognitive function, a higher prevalence of depression, and poor sleep health when compared with their age mates without epilepsy. This cross-sectional study could not determine the temporal course of epilepsy and co-morbidities, and further investigation will explore these associations prospectively., (Supported by: This study was supported in part by NIH grant K23 NS02192 (SRH), NIH PO1 AG03949 (RBL), and a research grant from Pfizer.)