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Neurology 1999;53:1511
© 1999 American Academy of Neurology

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Articles

Subjective versus objective memory change after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery

S. M. Sawrie, PhD, R. C. Martin, PhD, R. Kuzniecky, MD, E. Faught, MD, R. Morawetz, MD, F. Jamil, MD, M. Viikinsalo, BS and F. Gilliam, MD

From the Departments of Neurology (Drs. Sawrie, Martin, Kuzniecky, Faught, Morawetz, and Gilliam, and M. Viikinsalo) and Psychiatry (F. Jamil), Epilepsy Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Stephen M. Sawrie, 1719 6th Avenue South, CIRC 312, Birmingham, AL 35294.

OBJECTIVE: To examine subjective versus objective memory change after anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL).

METHODS: A prospective, controlled study. Controls included 39 unoperated patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) who were administered a series of cognitive and health-related quality of life measures at baseline and at 12-month follow-up intervals. The surgery sample included 65 patients with intractable, focal TLE who had undergone either a right or left ATL. These patients were tested preoperatively and at 6-month follow-up intervals. Subjective and objective memory change was quantified using a newly developed methodology to control for practice effect and regression to the mean.

RESULTS: Measures of subjective and objective memory change were not significantly related in the surgery sample. Prevalence of significant subjective memory decline 1 year after surgery ranged from 3 to 7%, whereas prevalence of significant objective memory decline ranged from 26 to 55%. Postoperative levels of emotional distress significantly predicted self-reported memory decline 1 year after ATL. Postoperative medication side effect and seizure outcome were also related significantly to subjective memory change in patients who had undergone left ATL.

CONCLUSIONS: Subjective and objective memory change after temporal lobectomy are not related. Complaints of significant memory decline after ATL are infrequent and may serve as a marker for depression or other mood disorder rather than organically based memory decline. Kew words: Temporal lobe epilepsy—Epilepsy surgery—Memory—Neuropsychology—Health-related quality of life.

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