Background: Epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder is common in children. The global decline in intellectual functioning may occur in children with seizure disorder. Objectives: The present study was undertaken to assess cognitive function in children with epilepsy. Method: This was a hospital based observational study on 60 children aged 2-5 years and 68; 6-14 years suffering from idiopathic epilepsy. 74 and 64 normal age and gender matched healthy children were also selected as control. Sixty six children suffering from epilepsy aged 6-14 years were also assessed for their memory functioning with healthy control (n=71). Binet-Kulsrestha intelligence scale and PGI memory scale were used for cognitive assessment. Result: Epileptic children had significantly lower scores on cognitive functioning in domains of visual-perception (p<0.001), motorcoordination (p<0.001), language development (p<0.001), and immediate recall (p<0.001) as compared to control. In children aged 6-14 years with epilepsy, significantly lower values were observed for analysis, synthesis and reasoning (p<0.001) and memory (p<0.001) as compared to control. Epileptic children also had significantly lower overall IQ. Conclusion: Parent should be counseled about decline in cognitive functions and IQ in epileptic children for early intervention and appropriate measures.

Keywords: Epilepsy; Cognition; Memory; Intelligence Quotient(IQ).