Prospective follow-up of intellectual development in children with a recent onset of epilepsy

In this study the intellectual development of children with a recent onset of epilepsy was compared to that of children without epilepsy. Eleven children aged 7-15 years and with mean duration of epilepsy of 2 years and 38 children without epilepsy performed three times the dutch Wechsler intelligence scale for children-revised and the Beery developmental test for visuo-motor integration. The children with epilepsy did show a significantly less gain in FSIQ score over the 1 1/2 years of follow-up. Performance intelligence scores and Beery standardized scores showed a trend towards this effect. Findings partly support the hypothesized cascadic model of deterioration, in which children with epilepsy are supposed to show a process of mental deterioration shortly after the onset of epilepsy. The lack of evidence of an absolute mental deterioration are discussed in terms of methodology, mental age and premorbid intelligence level. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.