Behavioral psychophysiological intervention in a mentally retarded epileptic patient with brain lesion.

Abstract

Behavioral psychophysiological treatment entailing Slow Cortical Potential (SCP) biofeedback training and behavioral self-control training was conducted with a 27-year-old male epileptic patient (seizures for 23 years) with Wechsler IQ 64 who underwent callosotomy. The patient had 12/week secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. The treatment, consisting of 43 SCP training sessions and 22 behavioral control sessions, yielded a highly significant reduction of seizure frequency to about 7.5/week; such a decrease had never been observed after administration of new anticonvulsant drugs, nor after the callosotomy. During SCP feedback training, the patient was able to produce highly-significant cortical differentiation of SCPs of about 4 microV. In addition, he developed several new behaviors indicating growing ability of self-perception and self-regulation. These findings suggest that a combination of SCP biofeedback with behavioral treatment of epilepsy can be used even in mentally retarded patients with organic brain disorders.

• Authors: S Holzapfel, U Strehl, B Kotchoubey, N Birbaumer
• Journal: Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback (Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback) Vol. 23 Issue 3 Pg. 189-202 (Sep 1998) ISSN: 1090-0586 [Print] Germany
• PMID: 10384250 (Publication Type: Case Reports, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Anticonvulsants

Topics

• Adult
• Analysis of Variance
• Anticonvulsants (blood, therapeutic use)
• Behavior Therapy
• Biofeedback, Psychology
• Brain (pathology, surgery)
• Electroencephalography
• Epilepsy (complications, therapy)
• Humans
• Intellectual Disability (complications)
• Male
• Neuropsychological Tests
• Psychophysiology
• Seizures (drug therapy, prevention & control)
• Wechsler Scales