Abstracts

RATIONALE:The current investigation examined the relationship between measures of thought disorder and pre/perinatal factors in a sample of 62 CPS, 52 PGE and 68 nonepileptic children aged 5 to 16. METHODS:_Speech samples using the Story Game were coded using the Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Rating Scale (Caplan, et al., 1989), Halliday and Hassan s analysis of cohesion (1976), and Evans (1985) guidelines for self-intitated repair. Prenatal and perinatal items from the Yale Neuropsychoeducational Assessment (Shawitz, 1982) were completed by the mothers, abstracted, and grouped in 3 categories: maternal (i.e. toxemia, history of bleeding), obstetrical (i.e. labor difficulties, hypoxic events) and drug (i.e. prescriptions, alcohol, illicit substances). RESULTS:_There were no statistically significant associations of pre/perinatal factors with thought disorder variables in the normal group. Increased exophora, a measure of how the child refers to the immediate surrounding rather than to the conversational context, correlated significantly with obstetrical factors in the CPS and with maternal and drug factors in the PGE group. Self-intiated syntactic repair which can make speech sound redundant was increased in the CPS group and associated significantly with drug factors. In the PGE group, illogical thinking was significantly correlated with maternal factors. CONCLUSIONS:_Aspects of thought disorder that differentiate between the CPS and PGE subjects are related to different pre/perinatal profiles. The relationship of maternal, drug, and obstetric factors with thought disorder in the CPS imply a possible acute effect of prenatal factors on the development of this seizure disorder and on neural circuits involved in these aspects of language development. Maternal factors (i.e. diabetes, toxemia, prolonged exposure to a drug), or gradual, yet cumulative prenatal effects, seem to be associated with the disorganized thinking of the PGE group. (Supported by NINDS 1 RO1 NS 32070 )