Cognition and epilepsy: Cognitive screening test

ABSTRACT. Cognitive deficits often occur in people with epilepsy (PWE). However, in Brazil, PWE might not undergo neurocognitive evaluation due to the low number of validated tests available and lack of multidisciplinary teams in general epilepsy outpatient clinics. Objective: To correlate Brief Co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dementia & Neuropsychologia
Main Authors: Glória Maria Almeida Souza Tedrus, Maria Lina Giacomino Almeida Passos, Letícia Muniz Vargas, Larissa Estela Ferreira Jacó Menezes
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Neurologia Cognitiva e do Comportamento 2020-06-01
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1980-57642020000200186&tlng=en
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT. Cognitive deficits often occur in people with epilepsy (PWE). However, in Brazil, PWE might not undergo neurocognitive evaluation due to the low number of validated tests available and lack of multidisciplinary teams in general epilepsy outpatient clinics. Objective: To correlate Brief Cognitive Battery-Edu (BCB-Edu) scores with epilepsy characteristics of 371 PWE. Methods: Clinical and cognitive assessment (MMSE, BCB-Edu) of 371 PWE aged >18 years was performed. The clinical aspects of epilepsy were correlated with BCB-Edu data. Cognitive data of PWE were compared against those of 95 healthy individuals (NC), with p-<0.05. Results: People with epilepsy had lower cognitive performance than individuals in the NC group. Cognitive aspects also differed according to epilepsy characteristics. Predictive factors for impairment in multiple cognitive domains were age and use of more than one antiepileptic drug (logistic regression; R2 Nagelkerke=0.135). Conclusion: Worse cognitive performance was found in PWE on different domains. There was a relationship between cognitive impairment and the aspects of epilepsy. BCB-Edu proved to be effective as a cognitive assessment screening test for epilepsy in adults.
ISSN:1980-5764