Remote memory in epilepsy

Purpose: There is now a considerable amount of research relating to memory functioning in epilepsy. The majority of studies have focused on the retent ion of new information, and few reports have measured memory for past event s. This study aims to redress this and measure the efficiency of remote mem ory in epilepsy. Methods: A remote memory questionnaire was prepared and administered to thr ee groups of patients with epilepsy and a control group without epilepsy. T he questionnaire assessed knowledge of public events that occurred between 1980 and 1991, inclusive. The epilepsy groups comprised 33 patients with te mporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), 33 with extratemporal epilepsy (ExTE), and 10 w ith primary generalized epilepsy (PGE). Thirty control subjects were tested . Results: Patients with TLE performed significantly less well on the questio nnaire than all other groups (p = 0.001), but no effect of laterality was r ecorded; patients with extratemporal or primary generalised epilepsy did no t differ from controls. Performance on the questionnaire was not determined by verbal IQ, educational achievement, social class, or drug treatment, bu t was related to the number of generalised convulsions that had occurred si nce 1980. The strongest neuropsychological predictors of performance on thi s questionnaire were measures of verbal memory. Conclusions: The study demonstrated weak memory for past events in patients with TLE, thereby providing evidence of a broader memory disturbance in th is group than has been previously highlighted. A test of remote memory, suc h as the one designed for this study, is easy to administer and provides cl inically important information not available from conventional neuropsychol ogical tests.