ABSTRACT
Understanding the cognitive and behavioural consequences of epilepsy is an integral part of its clinical management. When reviewing this important topic, it should be noted that the majority of studies in this field are clinical observations that do not allow general inferences. Moreover, research is complicated by methodological pitfalls such as sample selection bias, absence of adequate control groups, controversies as to measures of psychopathology, the possible influence of various confounding variables such as the use of antiepileptic medication, and the effects of economic and social stress associated with chronic disorders in general (Hermann and Whitman, 1984). Nonetheless, the enormous body of research that has been carried out over a period of more than a century provides ample evidence to illustrate that people with epilepsy, as a group, have more cognitive, behavioural and emotional problems than control populations of healthy subjects. In some individuals such problems may be more debilitating than the seizures themselves.
