Program Overview

As if epilepsy itself weren't enough, children and adolescents with the disease often experience a wide variety of psychiatric comorbidities. The challenges for the clinician are multiple: psychiatric symptoms in young patients often present differently than they do in adults; treatment modalities, including medications and/or surgery, must be considered in light of their effects on behavior as well as on the primary disease. This means, for example, that AEDs must be carefully selected with a full understanding of their neuropsychopharmacology.

This program will address the relationship between epilepsy, psychiatric symptoms, and various approaches to their management in children and adolescents.

This program was adapted from a satellite symposium that was presented at the annual meeting of the Child Neurology Society in 2003.

Segment One Overview

The first segment of the program will provide a broad view of the issues, discussing the types of psychiatric and behavioral problems seen most commonly in young people with epilepsy, and what current data tells us about how frequently each of these problems is seen in these patients, compared to the general population. The risk factors for these comorbidities differ according to such factors as age of onset of epilepsy and seizure severity; these and other factors can be helpful in identifying the psychiatric and behavioral issues and beginning to form a treatment plan that takes into account the primary disease and the related comorbidities.

This activity will begin with a talk by John M. Pellock, MD, on defining the scope of the problem, followed by David Dunn, MD, discussing the differential diagnosis of psychiatric and behavioral problems in this patient population.

Target Audience

This activity is intended for physicians, particularly neurologists and pediatricians, who treat young people who have epilepsy and may also have related psychiatric and behavioral issues.

This activity seeks to address the needs of these physicians to understand what psychiatric and behavioral symptoms may occur in the children and adolescents with epilepsy that they see in their practice, and how these symptoms may be associated with epilepsy and its treatment.

Format and Minimum System Requirements

This multimedia activity consists of video of faculty lectures, accompanied by slides, along with text notes that highlight and expand upon key points in the lectures. The slides and text advance automatically to accompany the video, but participants have the option of pausing or returning to a previous slide and accompanying remarks to review the material. This material is delivered over the Internet, so an Internet connection must be maintained while viewing the activity. Participants complete the activity by viewing the video, slide, and text material in a window on their computer, and completing an online post-test and evaluation questionnaire.

Participants who successfully complete the post-test and evaluation may print a certificate of completion from the screen.

Participants who complete the post-test and evaluation will also receive, for their future reference, a CD containing the material from the presentation. The CD will be mailed by The BioContinuum Group to the address provided on the online post-test and evaluation questionnaire.

The estimated time to complete this activity is 1.25 hours.

In order to view this activity, we recommend the following:

• Minimum 300 MHz Intel Pentium II processor or equivalent
• Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
• 128 MB RAM
• Internet Explorer 5.x or later (6.0 for Windows XP), Netscape 7.x or later
• Flash 6 plug-in (or higher)
• High-speed Internet connection preferred

• Minimum 233 MHz PowerPC G3 processor
• Mac OS 9.x or Mac OS X 10.1.x or later
• 128 MB RAM
• Internet Explorer 5.x or later, Netscape 7.x or later, Safari 1.x
• Flash 6 plug-in (or higher)
• High-speed Internet connection preferred

Educational Objectives

• Recognize the psychiatric and behavioral comorbidities most frequently observed in children and adolescents with epilepsy
• Describe which psychiatric and behavioral difficulties are most common in these children, and what factors may indicate higher likelihood of their occurrence.

Continuing Medical Education Credit

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) by the School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia Campus (VCU), and The BioContinuum Group, Inc. VCU is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

VCU designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.25 hours in category 1 credit toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the activity.

Disclaimer

The content and views presented in this educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsors. The speakers are expected to indicate any unlabeled use of products that may be mentioned in their presentations. Before prescribing any medication, primary references and full prescribing information should be consulted.

Disclosures

In compliance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standards for Commercial Support of CME, the VCU Office of Continuing Medical Education discloses all current relationships that program faculty report having with companies whose products they may discuss during their presentation.

These faculty members have disclosed relationships with commercial supporters of CME:

Acknowledgment

This program is made possible by an unrestricted educational grant from UCB Pharma, Inc.

VCU Privacy Policy

It is the policy of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) that personal information about citizens will be collected only to the extent necessary to provide the service or benefit desired; that only appropriate information will be collected; that the citizen shall understand the reason the information is collected and be able to examine their personal record which is maintained by a public body. The VCU Office of Continuing Medical Education does not share or sell information collected for this purpose to any other parties.