Parental report of behavioral and cognitive diagnoses in childhood-onset epilepsy: A case–sibling-controlled analysis

Evidence from multiple sources has highlighted the increased burden of cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric disorders in childhood-onset epilepsy. Some of this increased morbidity, however, is attributable to underlying structural and metabolic insults. We assessed whether cognitive/behavioral/psychiatric disorders are associated with epilepsy of unknown or presumed genetic cause in young people with epilepsy (cases) compared with sibling controls. Our analyses included 217 cases who were enrolled in the Connecticut Study of Epilepsy between 1993 and 1997 and 217 sibling controls. Information was collected from a parent interview conducted 8–9 years after the case was diagnosed with epilepsy. Relative to controls, parents were more likely to report that their case children were slow learners (OR = 4.6, P < 0.001), had a language disorder (OR = 5.8, P < 0.001), and had engaged in self-injurious behaviors other than suicide attempts (OR = 5.5, P = 0.013). Future research should examine whether these conditions first present during childhood influence prognosis into adulthood.