Analysis of writing in an epilepsy center population: a prospective blinded study

Sixty adult comprehensive epilepsy center patients were given a simple writing task to complete. The essays were scored using four unique scales: Subject--whether the writing concentrated on physical or emotional aspects of the seizures; Focus-how much of the essay was on task; Ratio--a measure of detail; Word--total word count. Among the findings, patients with nonepileptic events (n=28) tended to write essays containing both physical and emotional components (P=0.058), whereas those with partial seizures (n=28) did not (P=0.006). Essays concentrating on emotional aspects increased the likelihood of a diagnosis of partial seizures (P=0.059). The variance of Ratio was higher in those without nonepileptic events than in those with nonepileptic events (P=0.0003), whereas it was higher in the group with partial seizures than in the group without partial seizures (P=0.000008). This study suggests unique features associated with the writing of patients with epilepsy and those with nonepileptic events.