How is childrens quality of life affected by epilepsy?
I think that we spend a lot of time focusing on the seizures, which are alarming to parents and physicians alike, but we inadvertently give short-shrift the other issues like cognition, attention, behavior and socialization, which can make the biggest difference in a child’s long-term outcome. We need studies that go beyond seizure control and look at the effect on the quality of life of the child. In pediatrics, the major issue is what impact epilepsy is having on the child’s education. I came up with a mnemonic for school-related problems, the ABCs. The A stands for attention. Sometimes, the underlying dysfunction in the brain that cause the seizures also set the stage for an attention problem. For example, a frontal lobe lesion might produce a seizure, and your frontal lobes are very important in helping you stay on task and keep you free from distractions. B is for behavioral issues, which could also be due to an inherent problem or to a side effect of the medications. For example,
