Attention and inhibitory control deficits in patients with genetic generalized epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizure

Background and Aim : This study aims to evaluate the attention and inhibitory control functions in patients with genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE) and psychogenic non-epileptic seizure (PNES) and compare the results with the healthy control subjects.Methods : A total of 30 patients with GGE, 30 patients with PNES, and 32 healthy control subjects were included in the study. The Severity of attention and inhibitory control deficit, general intelligence status, and psychopathology screening in all subjects were respectively investigated with Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA-CPT), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), and symptoms checklist 90-revised(SCL-90-R).Results : Patients with PNES had severe impairments in all performed tasks compared to control and GGE groups (p <0.01), whereas GGE patients had significantly lower attention quotient versus healthy subjects (p <0.01). The full-scale attention quotient and full-scale (FSAQ) response control quotient (FSRCQ) in PNES patients were significantly lower in comparison with GGE (47.83±32.68, 60.18±35.35, p <0.01) respectively. Multiple regression analysis did not demonstrate any significant effect of seizure frequency or epilepsy duration on attention and inhibitory control deficits, but patient’s intelligent quotient showed a significant effect on FSAQ and FSRCQ ( : 0.997, p < 0.001; : 0.933, p <0.001 respectively).Conclusion : Attention and inhibitory control, are significantly impaired in GGE and PNES patients. Finding the cognitive basics and deficits in GGE and PNES patients have potentially important clinical implications in planning neuropsychological rehabilitation for mentioned patients.

Keywords:

Attention and inhibitory control deficit , Genetic generalized epilepsy , Psychogenic non-epileptic seizure , frontal cognitive function