MENTAL DETERIORATION IN CHILDHOOD EPILEPSY

Mental retardation is detected in 20-30% of children with epilepsy at hospitals specializing in treatment of childhood epilepsy. However, th e incidence of mental deterioration in childhood epilepsy is not high. In this study, mental deterioration was found in 52 (1.8%) of the 2,8 80 children with epilepsy at Okayama University Hospital. The patients showing mental deterioration mostly suffered from specific epileptic syndromes, such as West syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, severe myoc lonic epilepsy in infancy and epilepsy with continuous spike-waves dur ing slow wave sleep, These types of epilepsy show generalized electroe ncephalographic (EEG) abnormalities. It is presumed that mental deteri oration is caused by the total effects of prolonged diffuse EEG abnorm alities and the age of the patients. Antiepileptic drugs exert a relat ively minor effect on mental deterioration.