J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry.
2011 Dec;22(4):302-306.
Cognitive Functions in Children Treated for Medulloblastoma
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Psychiatry, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. yschoung@skku.edu
- 2Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
To investigate the cognitive functions of pediatric cancer patients and to test the hypotheses that the impairment of processing speed and working memory are more prevalent in children with medulloblastoma (MBL) compared to children with neuroblastoma (NBL).
METHODS
We gave the Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligent Scale for Children-III to 21 children with MBL and 24 children with NBL during outpatient follow-up after the treatment was completed.
RESULTS
Children with MBL showed below average performance across most of the sub-tests. The full scale IQ, verbal IQ, and performance IQ of children with MBL were significantly lower than those of children with NBL. There were significant differences between two groups in coding and Digit Span subtest scores. Children with MBL performed especially poorly in the coding subtest.
CONCLUSION
These findings support previous reports of generally low IQ and the dysfunction of processing speed and working memory among children with MBL, a kind of central nervous system tumor. Further investigation is needed to determine how the deficit of processing speed and working memory affect neurocognitive development and general intelligent functions.
