Kate Davis, MD, MSTR: Cognitive Issues In Epilepsy

“One of the biggest complaints that patients report are memory difficulties—difficulty with work, difficulty with remembering simple items sometimes, unfortunately, and sometimes more significant cognitive impacts.”

Although the most well-known impact of epilepsy are the seizures that it causes, the additional effects of the disease can be just as debilitating to a patient’s quality of life.

For Kate Davis, MD, MSTR, these symptoms of the disease are equally important and equally as present in the clinic. As an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and an epileptologist, she encounters these patients on a daily basis.

She said that these issues can be caused by a number of factors, including the seizures themselves, the medications being used, and possible comorbidities that are coupled with the condition—all of which complicate the clinician’s ability to treat patients. To address this, there are several interventions that can be utilized, some of which are surgical.

At the American Neurological Association’s 143rd Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Davis sat with NeurologyLive to discuss the complication of cognitive issues faced by patients with epilepsy, and how these are being addressed in the clinic.