Neuropsychological intervention in patients with epilepsy

INTRODUCTION: Neuropsychological evaluation is part of the protocols that are performed in epilepsy surgery units with the aim of selecting suitable candidates for the surgical intervention. DEVELOPMENT: Yet, neuropsychology can be useful for a wider range of purposes in patients with epilepsy. Identifying the cognitive, emotional and behavioural impairments that cause both the epileptic seizures and the possible underlying neuropathologies that trigger them can provide further knowledge of the functional deterioration suffered by epilepsy patients, whether they are candidates for surgery or not, and help guide their possible rehabilitation. The results of this evaluation can also make it easier to carry out the differential diagnosis to distinguish epileptic seizures from other non-epileptic episodes, such as psychogenic seizures. CONCLUSIONS: Neuropsychological evaluation in epileptic patients has increased our knowledge of the higher processes, the brain circuits involved in them and the repercussions that brain injury has on them.