The Neuropsychology of Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a nervous system disturbance that abruptly interferes with ongoing behavior, perception, movement, consciousness, or other brain functions. Individual attacks are called seizures, and when the problem is persistent it is called either a seizure disorder or epilepsy. Seizures are relatively common among infants, children, and adolescents. Probably 8 of every 1000 children experience some sort of seizure activity, even if it is only a single occurrence of a febrile seizure (Lechtenberg, 1984). Occasionally, a seizure disorder will disappear as a child matures, but in a majority of cases, childhood epilepsy persists into adulthood, and in about 80% of adults with epilepsy this condition developed when they were children. At least 5 of every 1000 adults in the United States have epilepsy (Lechtenberg, 1984). The various types of epilepsy were described in Chapter 21 of this volume. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the neuropsychology of epilepsy, and the emphasis will be to discuss the emotional/behavioral and cognitive concomitants of epilepsy. We use the term concomitants to underscore the fact that epilepsy is a complex phenomenon, and the behavioral and cognitive events associated with it are the product of a complex interaction among neurological, medication, and psychosocial variables (Hermann & Whitman, 1986).