This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Objective: In this study, we aimed to uncover distinct antecedents of autobiographic memory dysfunction in patients with epilepsy with early (childhood/adolescence) vs late (adulthood) disease onset.
Methods: One hundred sixty-six adults participated: 92 patients with focal epilepsy, whose cognitive and psychiatric functioning were compared to that of 74 healthy controls. Predictors of autobiographic memory deficit were contrasted between patients with early-onset (n = 47) vs late-onset (n = 45) epilepsy.
Results: Overall, people with epilepsy performed significantly worse on measures of both semantic and episodic autobiographic memory and showed markedly high rates of depressive symptoms and disorders (p < 0.001). Reduced autobiographic memory in patients with early-onset epilepsy was associated with young age at onset, more frequent seizures, and reduced working memory. In contrast, the difficulty that patients with late-onset epilepsy had in recalling autobiographic information was linked to depression and the presence of an MRI-identified lesion.
Conclusions: This study reveals that memory deficits in people with focal epilepsy have differing antecedents depending on the timing of the disease onset. While neurobiological factors strongly underpin reduced autobiographic function in patients with early-onset epilepsy, psychological maladjustment gives rise to the impairments seen in patients with late-onset epilepsy. More broadly, these findings support the practice of subtyping patients according to distinct clinical characteristics to find individualized predictors of cognitive dysfunction.
GLOSSARY
- AMI=
- Autobiographical Memory Interview;
- AMN=
- autobiographic memory network;
- DSM-IV=
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition);
- ES=
- effect size;
- FSIQ=
- Full Scale IQ;
- NDDI-E=
- Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy;
- SCID=
- Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Supplemental data at Neurology.org
Editorial, page 1634
- Received March 3, 2016.
- Accepted in final form May 17, 2016.
- © 2016 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Author response to Dr. Heilman
- Memory and Medications
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
