[School failure and epilepsy: a case-control study]

School difficulties and educational inadequacy usually correlate with the child's epilepsy. The target of our study is to discover the most precocious possible the epilepsy and to prevent educational failure in the population of children from 6 to 15 years old. We have carried out a retrospective study on 162 children of an educational age. This population was made up of 100 epileptic children followed over a period of 3 years (1995-1997) and a witness group made up of 62 children selected from brothers and sisters of the study group, with the same sex in default of the opposed sex who are educated. We have noted that at the same age between children from the group of study and children from the witness group. The class of study was significantly inferior in the group of study: the educational average class is 4th against 5th in the witness group P = 0.11. The difference was about one year. The difference of educational results was significant. For the last educational year, the educational mark was 8.99/20 in the group of study against 12/20 in the witness one. P < 10-5. For the last educational semester, the educational mark was 9.5/20 in the group of study against 11.9/20 in the witness group. (P = 3 x 10(-4)).