ఇంటర్నేషనల్ జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ న్యూరో రిహాబిలిటేషన్

Improving Memory in Patients with Epilepsy: Considering the Impact of Anti-Epileptic Drugs, Low Mood and/or Surgery on Memory Training Program Outcomes

Abstract

Zoë Thayer, Cara Wong, Armin Mohamed and Laurie Miller

Aim: To determine whether epilepsy treatments (number of antiepileptic drugs and surgical history) and/or depressed mood would influence the ability to benefit from memory training of outpatients with epilepsy who participated in a group-based, six-week, Memory Training Program. We also investigated the relationships between symptoms of depression, performance on a new objective measure of association memory and subjective memory ratings.
Method: Forty-seven adults with epilepsy and memory complaints completed the training with pre- and posttraining assessments. Scores included (1) number correct on a new Identity Association Memory Test; (2) subjective self-rating of memory function; (3) number of reported strategies used for memory support. Two way (Group x Time) Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance were used to look for differences on the association-learning task. Pearson correlation analyses were used to examine the relationships between number of anti-epileptic drugs, subjective memory ratings, and presence of depression and objective memory scores.
Results: Repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated that training resulted in significant improvements of the total score on the Association Memory Test regardless of number of antiepileptic drugs (F=6.5,p=.01), surgical status (F=6,p=.02) or mood (F=7.4,p<.01). Although the depressed group rated their memory as lower overall (Group main effect F=4.8,p<.05), both groups showed similar improvements as a result of the training, (Test-time main effect: F=8.0,p<.01). Although depression level was correlated with lower self-ratings of memory (pre: r =-.3, p=.02; post: r=- .3, p=.05, depression scores were not correlated with objective memory performance at either test time.
Conclusion: This study contributes to evidence that memory rehabilitation benefits people with epilepsy. We found significant pre- to post-training improvements on subjective as well as objective measures of association learning. Furthermore, we found that the gains on all three outcome measures were unaffected by higher levels of antiepileptic drugs, previous surgical treatment or depressed mood.