Psychopathology in pediatric complex partial and primary generalized epilepsy

Structured psychiatric interviews were administered to 60 children with com plex partial seizure disorder (GPS), 40 children with primary generalized e pilepsy with absences (PGE), and 48 control children, aged 5 to 16 years. S ignificantly more patients with epilepsy had psychiatric diagnoses compared with the control children. There were no statistically significant differe nces, however, in the number of patients with GPS and PGE with psychiatric diagnoses. Other than a schizophrenia-like psychosis found only in the pati ents with CPS, the two groups of patients had similar psychiatric diagnoses . The presence of psychopathology was related to significantly lower IQ sco res and socioeconomic status, but not to seizure-related factors. These fin dings suggest that the psychopathology of children with CPS and PGE reflect s different subtle neuropsychological deficits.