Comorbidity and clinical impacts of Attention-Deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in child and adolescent with epilepsy

Abstract

Aims and objectives: To highlight the comorbidity and clinical impacts of ADHD in Egyptian children and adolescent with epilepsy regarding its different characteristics and effect on quality of life. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 115 children with epilepsy was carried out and assessed for ADHD prevalence using the DSM5 criteria, Conner's Parent Rating Scale for ADHD, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy Questionnaire: QOLCE-55. Results: 36 founded to have ADHD (31.3%) and 79 non-ADHD (68%), the inattention type was the most common by 19 child (52.7%) , 15 (41.6%) child with combined type and only 2 (5.5%) child with hyperactive type, The factors that were significantly associated with the co-morbidity were Lower age of onset of 1st seizure with nearly statically significant ratio (P value 0.051), the seizure presence in last 3 months group (P value 0.03), epileptic EEG abnormalities in the most recent EEG (P value 0.01), lower IQs (P value 0.002).and There was no statically significant association with sex, type of epilepsy, history of febrile seizure. There was strong statically significant decrease in quality of life with ADHD comorbidity (P value 0.001), and decrease school attendance between ADHD and non-ADHD groups (P value 0.015). Conclusion: ADHD is a common comorbidity in epileptic children with about 2\3 of ADHD children were not diagnosed, and severe effect on quality of life, so frequent assessment for ADHD in epileptic children is mandatory.