Abstracts

Rationale: Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) often present co-morbid cognitive and affective problems that could impact daily activities, social participation and life satisfaction. This study examined the contribution of cognitive and affective factors to quality of life (QOL) and social functioning among adults with TLE.Methods: The sample consisted of 75 adults with TLE with the mean age of 35 years old (SD = 12.50). The mean age at epilepsy onset for this sample was 18 years old (SD = 12.41). All participants underwent comprehensive assessment including long-term VEEG, neuroimaging studies, and neuropsychological and psychiatric assessment at the Tohoku University Hospital Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Using the subscales of QOLIE-31, two outcome variables were defined as overall QOL and social functioning. Predictors included demographic and epilepsy-related variables, the WAIS-III domain index scores, the WMS-R delayed recall score, and the QOLIE-31 emotional well-being subscale. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.Results: The predictors accounted for 39% of the variance in overall QOL (R2 = .392, ΔR2 = .263, F [13, 61] = 3.03, p = .002). Reduced delayed recall (p < .001) and emotional well-being (p < .001) were found to contribute significantly to poorer overall QOL. For social functioning, the predictors account for 20% of the outcome variance (R2 = .204, ΔR2 = .035, F [13, 61] = 1.21, p = .30). Increased emotional well-being (p = .04) was found to contribute significantly to better social functioning.Conclusions: Overall, this study demonstrated the significant impact of emotional well-being and memory problems on QOL and social functioning of patients with TLE.