Abstracts

Rationale: Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often complain of memory impairment. Objective measures of memory function do not always reflect the degree and severity of subjective memory complaints. Methods: We used a validated 10 item Frequency of Forgetting scale (FOF10) to assess subjective memory in 55 preoperative patients with TLE compared to 76 controls without epilepsy. Results were analyzed in comparison to age, gender, laterality of seizure focus, neuropsychological test results, depression (CES-D) and neuroticism (PANAS). Results: Mean age was 39 years (42% males) for patients and 42 years (50% males) for controls. The mean score for the FOF10 in patients was 43.9 and in controls 51.8 (p<0.001, lower score indicates perceived poorer memory). FOF10 scores did not correlate with age, gender or laterality of seizure focus. Neuropsychological test results were consistent with memory impairment in 61% of TLE patients but the findings did not correlate with the FOF10 results. Correlation of the FOF10 score with depression(CES-D, p=0.04) and neuroticism(PANAS, p=0.07) approached significance. Conclusions: Perception of memory impairment in presurgical patients with TLE is greater than in controls. This may relate more to emotional factors than to defective memory mechanisms in the temporal lobe.