<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec id="j_joepi-2015-0016_s_001"><h3>Introduction</h3><p>Cognitive dysfunction is one of the main comorbidities of epilepsy which co-exists with seizures and contributes to the adverse impact of the disease on employment, education and interpersonal relationships. A fundamental question regarding cognitive dysfunction in epilepsy goes as follows: in comparison to seizures, what role does cognitive dysfunction play in causing social disability? The purpose of this review was to evaluate our understanding of the role cognitive impairment plays in social disability in persons with epilepsy (PWE). We systematically searched the medical literature and identified studies which assessed the impact of seizures and cognitive function on some aspect of social disability in PWE.</p></sec><sec id="j_joepi-2015-0016_s_002"><h3>Results and Discussion</h3><p>We identified 12 studies which adequately measured all variables in non-surgical cohorts, and 9 studies of cohorts following epilepsy surgery. We found evidence from non-surgical and from surgical series that cognitive variables strongly correlate with levels of social disability.</p></sec><sec id="j_joepi-2015-0016_s_003"><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>We conclude that efforts to better understand the origins of cognitive dysfunction in epilepsy and subsequently at developing treatment modalities will be needed in order to reduce the degree of social disability caused by the condition.</p></sec></abstract>

IntroductionCognitive dysfunction is one of the main comorbidities of epilepsy which co-exists with seizures and contributes to the adverse impact of the disease on employment, education and interpersonal relationships. A fundamental question regarding cognitive dysfunction in epilepsy goes as follows: in comparison to seizures, what role does cognitive dysfunction play in causing social disability? The purpose of this review was to evaluate our understanding of the role cognitive impairment plays in social disability in persons with epilepsy (PWE). We systematically searched the medical literature and identified studies which assessed the impact of seizures and cognitive function on some aspect of social disability in PWE.Results and DiscussionWe identified 12 studies which adequately measured all variables in non-surgical cohorts, and 9 studies of cohorts following epilepsy surgery. We found evidence from non-surgical and from surgical series that cognitive variables strongly correlate with levels of social disability.ConclusionsWe conclude that efforts to better understand the origins of cognitive dysfunction in epilepsy and subsequently at developing treatment modalities will be needed in order to reduce the degree of social disability caused by the condition.

Cognitive impairment predicts social disability in persons with epilepsy

Journal of Epileptology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Cognitive impairment predicts social disability in persons with epilepsy"}

IntroductionCognitive dysfunction is one of the main comorbidities of epilepsy which co-exists with seizures and contributes to the adverse impact of the...

Cognitive impairment predicts social disability in persons with epilepsy

Published Online: Aug 29, 2014

Page range: 89 - 97

Received: May 19, 2014

Accepted: Aug 20, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/joepi-2015-0016

Keywords
epilepsy, cognitive impairment, social disability

© 2014 Krzysztof A. Bujarski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Cognitive impairment predicts social disability in persons with epilepsy

Published Online: Aug 29, 2014

Page range: 89 - 97

Received: May 19, 2014

Accepted: Aug 20, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/joepi-2015-0016

Keywordsepilepsy, cognitive impairment, social disability

© 2014 Krzysztof A. Bujarski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
epilepsy, cognitive impairment, social disability