Psychosocial and functional outcomes in young adults with childhood-onset epilepsy: a 10-year follow-up.
Rachel Friefeld Kesselmayer, Taylor McMillan, Beatrice Lee and 3 others
PMID 31985053WHAT IT FOUND
Young adults with epilepsy had similar education, living, work, income, marriage, and quality of life outcomes to controls.
They reported more cognitive and overall functional disability. The differences were linked to ADHD and school problems present at diagnosis.
Key findings
01Young adults with epilepsy and controls were similar in education, living arrangement, employment, income, marital status, and quality of life.
02Epilepsy was associated with greater cognitive, participation, and overall disability scores compared with controls.
03Baseline ADHD and academic problems were linked to differences in cognitive and overall disability scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small and most participants were in their early twenties, so outcomes such as graduation, marriage, and living independently may not have occurred yet. Follow-up participation was not random: epilepsy diagnosis and baseline psychiatric diagnosis were associated with responding, and, among participants with epilepsy, higher IQ was associated with responding, so the follow-up sample may not represent all people with epilepsy. The supplied text reports significance values and rates, but not the actual mean scores or effect sizes, so the size of the differences cannot be judged from this text. This was an observational follow-up comparison, so it cannot show that ADHD or school problems caused the later disability differences.
Declared interests
No conflict of interest declaration is included in the supplied article text. The publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that epilepsy itself causes worse long-term functioning or that seizure remission determines outcomes. The psychosocial outcomes were similar to controls, and remission status was not related to the WHODAS cognition, participation, or overall disability scores.