Risk factors predicting intractability in focal epilepsy in children under 3 years of age: A cohort study.

Background: Focal onset epilepsy carries a higher risk of intractability than generalized onset epilepsy. Knowledge of the risk factors of intractability will help guide the treatment of children with focal epilepsy. In addition to risk factors present at initial diagnosis, the evolution of clinical and electroencephalographic features may also play a role in predicting intractability.

Social functioning of children after epilepsy surgery: A literature review.

This literature review on social functioning of children after epilepsy surgery is based on 24 papers addressing two categories of social functioning: social cognition (n = 4) and general social functioning (n = 20). Overall, studies that compared with healthy peers revealed children who had undergone epilepsy surgery to have more problems in both social cognition and general social functioning. Half of the studies found some improvement in social functioning in the first year(s) after epilepsy surgery, but this pertained to general social functioning, not to social cognition.

Epilepsy surgery in children: no further threat to theory of mind.

To investigate whether theory of mind (ToM), an important requirement for adaptive social functioning, is different between children with pharmacologically refractory epilepsy who undergo epilepsy surgery and healthy control children, whether ToM is affected by epilepsy surgery in these children, and whether ToM is associated with demographic or epilepsy variables. The "ToM storybooks", a psychometrically sound ToM instrument designed for children, was administered shortly before and 0.5, one and two years after surgery as part of a neuropsychological assessment.

Parents experience problems in psychological and family functioning two to four years after their child's epilepsy surgery.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore whether parents experience problems in their own psychological wellbeing and their family functioning two to four years after their child's epilepsy surgery and whether these problems are associated with epilepsy variables, demographic and cognitive variables, and parent-observed behavior problems of the child.

Methods: Of the 65 approached families, parents of 31 children participated by completing the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), the Family Questionnaire, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). High scores indicating clinically relevant problems were reported and called 'problem scores'.

Personality traits of children before and after epilepsy surgery.

We studied how children with epilepsy (CWE) who are candidates for epilepsy surgery, perceive themselves with respect to overarching personality traits and whether the traits change after surgery. We explored influences of demographic and illness variables. A total of 23 CWE [mean age at inclusion 12.