Cognitive and behavioral disturbances as epileptic manifestations in children: an overview.

Some childhood epilepsies or epileptic syndromes have a direct impact on cognition and/or behavior. Stagnation or regression in development, learning arrest or marked fluctuations in cognitive abilities and behavior can present the symptoms. The problems of diagnosis and evaluation of these situations which differ from those encountered in "classical" epilepsies are discussed in this paper. Cognitive and behavioral disturbances are treated together in this discussion without further qualification although it is fully acknowledged that it is a gross oversimplification. This term indicates that either one or the other or both can occur as a primary direct effect of epilepsy.