Postsurgical changes in self-reported mood and composite IQ in a matched sample of patients with frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy

Changes in self-reported mood assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory (BD I) were examined in a sample of 60 left-hemisphere speech-dominant patients who under-went epilepsy surgery (15 right frontal, 15 left frontal, 15 rig ht temporal, 15 left temporal), Temporal lobectomy patients were matched to frontal lobectomy patients by presurgical BDI scores, premorbid K-BIT comp osite IQ, sex.. age, and years since seizure onset. Overall, self-reported mood improved following surgery, with men showing a greater improvement tha n women. There were no differences among the four groups in terms of pre-su rgical and post-surgical reported mood. However, frontal patients showed mo re extreme changes in mood in either direction than temporal patients. Addi tionally, while temporal patients showed gains in Composite IQ, no such gai ns were observed in frontal patients. Changes in mood in frontal patients w ere not related to postsurgical seizure outcome or time since surgery, but were related to changes in Composite IQ.