Abstracts

Rationale: Children with seizures and children with psychiatric disorders experience more challenges with school-performance (SP) than healthy children. The study objective was to determine if differences exist in the incidence and severity of (SP) difficulties in children with seizures, compared to children without seizures, and specifically children with psychiatric disorders.

Methods: All school-aged children with an initial EEG in 2016 were included in this single-center retrospective study. Children were divided into the following groups based on the presence or absence of: 1) seizure, 2) no-seizure, and 3) psychiatric disorder (subset of 2nd group). SP difficulties were defined as the requirement of additional school-assistance, with graded severity level. The incidence and severity of SP difficulties of the seizure group was compared to the no-seizure and psychiatric group at baseline and at 2 to 4 years follow-up.

Results: At baseline, SP difficulties were similar between the seizure (n=146) and no-seizure (n=332) groups respectively [38/146 (26%) vs. 91/332 (27%)]. At follow-up the seizure group (n=119) had significantly higher incidence of SP difficulties than the non-seizure (n=215) group (54% vs. 47%), and greater severity of difficulties (both p< 0.005). In the seizure group, more anti-seizure medications (p < 0.01), > 30 total seizures (p < 0.03) and epileptiform discharges on initial EEG (p < 0.04) were predictive of SP difficulties. Notably, no difference was observed in SP, including severity, between the seizure (n=119) and psychiatric (n=69) group at baseline (31% vs. 43%) or at follow-up (54% vs. 55%).