Everyday Memory in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: an Investigation with the Current Orientation Test

Everyday memory in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) was investigated using a new test (the Current Orientation test) which aims to address temporal orientation as a core function of memory in everyday life. The Current Orientation Test (COT) was administered to 20 TLE subjects and 21 controls, along with the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test, the Recognition Memory Test, and a Memory Checklist. The COT was found to discriminate between the two groups on measures of the speed of producing examples of everyday events and ranking these events in temporal order. Disappointingly, the two groups were not differentiated by a measure of consistency of ranking the events over two trials, thereby casting doubt on the clinical utility of the COT Performance on the COT was correlated with performance on the RBMT, but not with the Memory Checklist. The TLE subjects were impaired on the RBMT indicating a considerable level of everyday memory impairment in this group. The clinical utility of the COT is discussed in the light of the failure to find a difference in terms of the consistency measure and with respect to the significant correlation with the RBMT. The RBMT is considered to be an adequate measure of everyday memory impairment in TLE subjects, and the need for an additional measure of everyday memory to complement the RBMT is also discussed. No differences were found between the two groups in terms of reported memory failures on the Memory Checklist; this finding is discussed in terms of general difficulties with this form self report. Higher levels of depression and anxiety were reported by the TLE subjects on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, in keeping with previous studies in this area; this suggests that mood is an important area of intervention in clinical work with TLE subiects.