Comparison of ADHD Symptoms in Epileptic and Normal Children

Document Type : Original article

Authors

1 1. Associate professor of Psychiatry, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Behavioral Sciences Research center, Tehran, Iran.

2 2. Ph.D student in Psychometric. Allameh Tabatabaie University, Tehran, Iran

3 3. Professor of Psychiatry. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Behavioral Research Center, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background and Aim: The association between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy has been the focus of numerous studies published recently.
Population studies suggest that 12–17% of children with epilepsy meet the criteria for ADHD compared to 3% to 7% of the general pediatric population.
 The purpose of this study was to evaluate ADHD symptoms in Iranian epileptic children.
Materials and Methods: One hundred  Epileptic Children  who were referred to a governmental or private  neurological clinic in Tehran and 100 healthy children matched for age and sex participated in this study.
Clinical evaluation of children were done  by a psychiatrist. We excluded children with mental retardation, cerebral pulsy, other medical and neurological disorders, pervasive developmental  disorder and  children who were using antiepileptic and other drugs that associated with ADHD like side effect.  After signing the informed consent, parents of epileptic children  completed  Persian version of CSI 4 Test  for evaluation of  ADHD symptoms  in children. The data were transferred to the designed sheets and analyzed by SPSS 19 software.
Results: Mean age of participants was 7. 47 (SD=0.94) in epileptic patients and 6.39 (SD=2.41) in normal children. There was a significant difference between the two groups in inattention (p = 0.0001) and hyperactivity-impulsivity (p = 0.024 (scales.
Conclusion: The present study showed that inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms were common in Iranian epileptic children.

Keywords


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Volume 3, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
January and February 2015
Pages 17-23
  • Receive Date: 04 June 2014
  • Revise Date: 18 August 2014
  • Accept Date: 08 October 2014
  • First Publish Date: 22 December 2014