Abstract
Background Epilepsy is particularly highly prevalent in developing African countries and has been associated with cognitive disturbances, but more importantly is the contribution of the anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Objective This study aimed at comparing the effects of AEDs on the cognitive functions of Nigerian epileptic patients. Methods This is a prospective study of 55 consecutive patients with epilepsy, aged 14 years and above, over a two year period (October 2000 to October 2002), recruited from the Neurology Clinic of the University Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Anti-epileptic treatment with either carbamazepine (19 patients), phenytoin (18 patients), or phenobarbitone (18 patients) which was randomly assigned constituted the interventional measure. Cognitive testing, using the Iron Psychology (FePsy) a computerized neuro-psychological test battery, measured the visual and auditory reaction times, the continuous performance test and the recognition memory test to assess the mental speed, attention and memory respectively. Results The effect of the individual drug on cognitive performance revealed significant impairment of mental speed (p0.05). Carbamazepine did not significantly affect the verbal (Words section) memory scores (p>0.05) implying better performance in tasks of verbal memory (p
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