Article

AIM: To establish the rates and types of psychiatric disorder in children before
and after surgery for extratemporal epilepsy. Relationships between psychiatric
morbidity and demographic/clinical variables were examined. METHOD: A
retrospective case note review of 71 children undergoing extratemporal focal
resection for drug resistant epilepsy in a specialist epilepsy surgery programme
between 1997 and 2008. Psychiatric diagnoses were derived from pre- and
postoperative assessments according to DSM-IV criteria. RESULTS: Seventy-one
children (38 males, 33 females) were eligible for this study. Mean age (SD) at
surgery was 9 (5) years. Frontal resections were performed in 73% of the
children, parietal in 17%, and occipital in 10%. Mental health problems were
present in 37 of 71 (52%) children pre- and/or postoperatively. A similar
proportion of children had psychiatric diagnoses pre- and postoperatively: 31 of
71 (44%) and 32 of 71 (45%) respectively. INTERPRETATION: Psychopathology is
common in children with extratemporal epilepsy. In this sample, the impact of
surgery on psychiatric symptoms was not predictable: some children were
unchanged, others improved, and others acquired new psychiatric diagnoses
postoperatively. Given the high rates of psychiatric disorder in this group of
patients, detection and treatment of mental health needs may be important.
CI - (c) The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology (c) 2012 Mac Keith
Press.

Langue : ANGLAIS