Comparison of ADHD Symptoms in Epileptic and Normal Children

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. 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. 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. The present study showed that inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms were common in Iranian epileptic children.