AES 2022 | Psychopathological outcomes after epilepsy surgery in children

Carmen Barba, MD, PhD, Meyer Children’s Hospital, University of Florence, Florence, Italy, shares the findings of a prospective, controlled study assessing the impact of epilepsy surgery on emotional and behavioral problems in children aged 2-17 with drug-resistant epilepsy. Epilepsy surgery is commonly used in children when pharmacological interventions have failed to provide seizure control, but assessment of psychopathological outcomes after surgery is typically limited. In this study, 62 operated and non-operated patients were evaluated at baseline and after one year. It was shown that epilepsy surgery was associated with a decrease in patient’s perception of their emotional problems and improvement in parent’s perception in their child’s externalizing problems. Operated patients with a favorable seizure outcome (Engel I-II) had a significantly greater probably of improvement of emotional and behavioral problems, compared to non-operated patients. This interview took place at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting 2022 in Nashville, TN.

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