Brief Behavioral Intervention for Disruptive Behavior in a Child Following Frontal and Temporal Resection for Medically Intractable Epilepsy: A Case Report

Children with epilepsy are at an increased risk for psychopathology, especially disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). Rates of DBD are especially high in children with frontal seizure foci who undergo frontal lobe surgery. Despite evidence that family and parenting factors have been shown to predict psychopathology in childhood epilepsy, there have been no studies of parenting interventions targeting disruptive behavior in these children. In the present case report, we adapted a validated parent management training intervention, the Brief Behavioral Intervention (BBI), to treat DBD in a 7-year-old boy who had undergone frontotemporal resection for medically intractable epilepsy. The family participated in 12 BBI sessions over a period of 19 weeks. Both parent and teacher report indicated reduction of significant disruptive behaviors to the normal range, with treatment gains generally maintained 2 months following treatment. The present case report demonstrates that parent management training in general, and BBI specifically, can be effective for treating problem behaviors in children with severe neurologically based behavioral presentations.