Abstracts

Reports of memory disturbance are common in patients with epilepsy. Studies have shown that subjective ratings of memory disturbance are highly influenced by mood and other psychological factors. Subjective ratings are found to be less related to scores on objective tests of memory . The goal of this study was to reinvestigate this topic with a new instrument that has been modified for use in this population.
We administered the Memory Complaints Inventory (Green & Allen, 1996), modified for use in patients with epilepsy (MCI-E), to 55 subjects (27 male, 26 female) undergoing VEEG monitoring. All were found to have electrophysiologic evidence of frontal (N=8) or temporal lobe (N=45) onset, as determined by video EEG recordings of ictal and interictal epileptiform abnormalities. The mean age of the sample was 36.5 years (range, 17-62). Mean years of education was 14.3 years (range, 8-18). Full Scale IQ for the sample was 98.3 (range, 70-136).
The MCI-E consists of 65-items, consisting of ratings on a five-point scale (0 to 4). Responses are typically divided among 10 subscales. Analyses for this study were limited to the total score, which represents a sum of the item ratings from each of the 65 questions. Results of preliminary analyses indicated that the internal reliability of the instrument was excellent (Coefficient alpha = .964). Subjects were also administered a battery of neuropsychological tests including standard measures of language (verbal fluency and naming) and memory (verbal and nonverbal). They also completed inventories of mood [Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)] and quality of life (QOLIE-10).
The mean total score on the MCI-E was 68.1 (SD = 44.3). No differences were found in patients with a temporal lobe versus frontal lobe seizure onset. There was no relationship with the laterality of the seizure focus. Relations with measures of mood and neuropsychological functioning were assessed with Pearson correlations. The total scores were found to correlate highly with scores on the BDI (r = .705, P [lt] .001) and the QOLIE-10 (r = .600, P [lt] .001) and to a lesser extent with the BAI (r = .488, P [lt] .01). Significant correlations were also found with scores on measures of verbal and nonverbal recall (California Verbal Learning Test, delayed recall; r = -.400, P [lt] .01; Brief Visuospatial Memory Test [ndash] Revised, delayed recall, r = -.332, P [lt] .05). No relations were found between MCI-E scores and other measures of verbal (WMS-R, Logical Memory I & II) and nonverbal (Rey Figure Recall) memory. There were no relations with measures of verbal fluency or naming.
Similar to previous studies, we found that scores on MCI-E correlate highly with self-reports of mood and quality of life. However, we also found that scores on this instrument have some relationship to indices of objective memory performance. These results indicate that the MCI-E holds promise as a valid measure of subjective memory impairment in patients with epilepsy.