Epilepsy-linked memory loss worries more patients than doctors

April, 2011

A survey shows patients with epilepsy worry more about memory loss than their physicians do.

A survey of 257 epileptic patients and five clinicians has revealed that while patients ranked memory loss as their second-most important concern on a list of 20 potential medical or social concerns, memory loss was ranked only 12th by the clinicians. Both groups agreed that having a seizure unexpectedly was the No. 1 concern, and there was reasonable agreement on many other issues (patients' five most frequent concerns matched the clinicians’ seven most frequent concerns), but memory was a big worry that simply didn’t come up for clinicians.

The researchers were particularly surprised to find that the strong concern about memory was found among patients doing well, as well as those who had had seizures in the past six months.

There are generally four ways that memory can be affected by epilepsy: medication side effects, uncontrolled seizures, the effects of the disease itself on the brain, and associated mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Research has shown that drugs specifically designed to improve memory, such as those for patients with dementia, have not been effective in patients with epilepsy.

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