Abstracts

RATIONALE: The aim of the project is to investigate frontal functions in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy and to compare these results to those of a group of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and to those of a sample with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE). METHODS: 70 patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, 70 with TLE and 44 with FLE were administered two tests measuring frontal functions: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Word Fluency. All patients had a normal intelligence level (equivalent score at the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices = > 2), they did not take other drugs, apart from AEDs, nor a psychiatric background. The idiopathic generalized epilepsy sample showed a mean age of 37.0 (S.D.=10.1), the frequency of their seizures a year was 0.3. The TLE sample showed a mean age of 37.9 (S.D.=11.8), and their frequency of seizures monthly was 5.5 (S.D.=2.6), the FLE group had a mean age of 36.0 (S.D.=12.9) and a frequency of seizures monthly of 6.6 (S.D.=6.1). RESULTS: Patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy performed worse than those with TLE (P<0.05) at the two frontal tests. The idiopathic generalized epilepsy performance was similar to that one of FLE group (P>0.05). Idiopathic generalized epilepsy patients seemed to have less mental flexibility and to be more perseverative than people with TLE. CONCLUSIONS: It seems from these results that idiopathic generalized epilepsy is not a completely benign condition from the cognitive point of view, but can reflex some specific neuropsychological deficits.