0000000000129162
AUTHOR
Mercedes Garcés
Age at surgery as a predictor of cognitive improvements in patients with drug-resistant temporal epilepsy
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery is an effective procedure that can produce cognitive changes. However, the prognostic factors related with cognitive outcomes need to be better understood. The aim of the present study is to know if age at surgery is a reliable predictor of verbal memory competence and considering factors such as: hemisphere; type of surgery; pre-surgical seizure frequency; and epilepsy duration. Sixty-one typically dominant patients with drug-resistant TLE (34 with left TLE [L-TLE] and 27 with right TLE [R-TLE]) underwent a neuropsychological assessment before and a year after surgery. Results showed that R-TLE patients had better evolution in short- and long-term verba…
Cortisol and trait anxiety as relevant factors involved in memory performance in people with drug-resistant epilepsy
People with drug-resistant epilepsy are exposed to unpredictable and uncontrollable seizures, which can be considered as a chronic stress condition. Additionally, these patients present memory deficits and a high prevalence of depression and anxiety. Cortisol, the main stress hormone, has a modulatory role on memory in healthy individuals and patients with emotional disorders, but its role in memory and emotional processes remains unclear in people with epilepsy. This study analyzes the differences in cortisol levels in people with epilepsy with high and low memory performance, and the relationships among cortisol levels, epilepsy-related factors, memory, anxiety, and depression. Fifty-two …
Quality of life in drug-resistant epilepsy: relationships with negative affectivity, memory, somatic symptoms and social support
Objective: To investigate the relative contribution of factors non-directly related to seizures such as negative affectivity, social support, somatic symptoms and memory performance on quality of life (QOL) in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Seventy patients with drug-resistant epilepsy were consecutively recruited from the inpatient Epilepsy Unit, Hospital Universitario y Politecnico La Fe, between April 2015 and October 2017. Medical history provided demographic characteristics of the patients (sex, age, and educational level), and clinical data (age at epilepsy onset, duration of epilepsy in years, frequency of seizures per month, type of …