Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;269(9):4997-5007.
doi: 10.1007/s00415-022-11147-2. Epub 2022 May 20.

School performance and psychiatric comorbidity in juvenile absence epilepsy and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: a Danish population-based cohort study

Magnus Spangsberg Boesen  1 , Malene Landbo Børresen  2   3 , Søren Kirchhoff Christensen  4 , Amalie Wandel Klein-Petersen  2 , Sahla El Mahdaoui  5 , Malini Vendela Sagar  6 , Emilie Schou  6 , Anna Korsgaard Eltvedt  7 , Maria Jose Miranda  7 , Alfred Peter Born  2 , Peter Vilhelm Uldall  2 , Lau Caspar Thygesen  8 , Melita Cacic Hribljan  9
Affiliations

School performance and psychiatric comorbidity in juvenile absence epilepsy and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: a Danish population-based cohort study

Magnus Spangsberg Boesen et al. J Neurol. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Background: We aimed to determine school performance and psychiatric comorbidity in juvenile absence epilepsy (JAE), juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) alone.

Methods: All children (< 18 years) fulfilled International League Against Epilepsy criteria after review of their medical records. Control groups were the pediatric background population or children with non-neurological chronic disease. Outcomes were on school performance and psychiatric comorbidity. We compared mean grade point averages using linear regression and estimated hazard ratios using Cox regression in the remaining analyses. We adjusted for the child's sex, age, and year of birth; and parental highest education, receipt of cash benefits or early retirement.

Results: We included 92 JAE, 190 JME, 27 GTCS alone, 15,084 non-neurological chronic disease controls, and population controls. JAE had two times increased hazard for special needs education compared with age-matched population controls (hazard ratio 2.2, 95% CI = 1.1‒4.6, p = 0.03); this was not seen in JME. Compared with population controls, both JAE and JME had lower grade point average in secondary and high school (JME: 9th grade: - 0.5 points, 95% CI = -0.9 to -0.06, p = 0.03; high school: - 0.6 points, 95% CI = -1.3 to -0.1, p = 0.04), and 8% fewer JME and 15% fewer JAE attended high school. Both JME and JAE had higher hazard for redeeming sleep medication compared with non-neurological chronic disease; additionally, JAE had increased hazard for ADHD medicine redemptions.

Conclusions: Both JAE and JME had marginally poorer school performance; performance seemed worse in JAE than in JME. Both JAE and JME had increased use of sleep medication.

Keywords: ADHD; Juvenile absence epilepsy; Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy; Prognosis; Psychiatry; School.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Fisher RS, Cross JH, French JA, Higurashi N, Hirsch E, Jansen FE et al (2017) Operational classification of seizure types by the international league against epilepsy: position paper of the ILAE commission for classification and terminology. Epilepsia 58(4):522–530 - DOI
    1. Camfield CS, Camfield PR (2009) Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy 25 years after seizure onset: a population-based study. Neurology 73(13):1041–1045 - DOI
    1. Camfield P, Camfield C (2010) Idiopathic generalized epilepsy with generalized tonic–clonic seizures (IGE-GTC): a population-based cohort with >20 year follow up for medical and social outcome. Epilepsy Behav EB 18(1–2):61–63 - DOI
    1. Vorderwülbecke BJ, Kowski AB, Kirschbaum A, Merkle H, Senf P, Janz D et al (2017) Long-term outcome in adolescent-onset generalized genetic epilepsies. Epilepsia 58(7):1244–1250 - DOI
    1. Senf P, Schmitz B, Holtkamp M, Janz D (2013) Prognosis of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy 45 years after onset: seizure outcome and predictors. Neurology 81(24):2128–2133 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources