Dysfunctional personality beliefs and executive performance in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy

Abstract Background This article intends to verify the association of dysfunctional beliefs of personality disorders with the executive performance in people with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME). Methods Fifty-two patients (35 women, 67.3%) with JME aged 18–50 yrs. (32.3 ± 9.7) were evaluated between May 2017 and April 2018 and compared with controls. All subjects were submitted to the Personality Beliefs Questionnaire (PBQ) (Beck & Beck, 1991; Savoia et al., 2006), Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DQ; Wilson et al., 1996; Macuglia et al., 2016), estimated intelligence quotient (IQ) using Vocabulary and Block Design tests, attention and executive functions evaluation (Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA), Digit Span, Trail Making Tests (TMT) A and B, Stroop and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)). The inclusion criteria were as follows: diagnosis of JME (ILAE, 1989); age ≥ 18 yrs., schooling ≥ 11 yrs. and IQ ≥ 70. The inclusion criteria for the control group were the same except diagnosis of epilepsy. Results Compared with controls, patients presented higher scores in PBQ for personality disorders, namely Narcissistic (z = − 0.79; p  Conclusion People with JME presented dysfunctional beliefs of personality disorder that were correlated with executive dysfunction. These findings reinforce the need for psychological rehabilitation in these patients.