Study of Cognitive and Psychiatric Dysfunction in Children with Epilepsy

Back ground: Epilepsy is one of the most physically and psychosocially debilitating chronic illnesses in children. A considerable proportion of children with epilepsy have various other disorders such as ADHD, learning problems, psychosocial difficulties, mental retardation, cerebral palsy or other disabilities. Objective: To assess the prevalence of cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction in children with epilepsy aged 6 14 yrs. Methodology: This is a cross sectional hospital based the study, included 100 children with age group ranging from 6 12 yrs., attending the neurology outpatient services for epilepsy. Cognitive assessment of the children was done by adopting the MISIC (Malins Intelligence Scale for Indian Children) scale. Psychosocial assessment was done by adopting the Developmental Psychopathology Checklist for children (DPCL) Results:Psychosocial dysfunction is observed in 36% of children with epilepsy. The prevalence of various disorders found in epilepsy patients are Learning disorders 30%, Emotional disorders 21%, Conduct disorders 5%, ADHD was 12% and Psychoses was 1%. Conclusion: Cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction are the major comorbid disorders in children with epilepsy.