Early Surgical Intervention to Treat Epilepsy

Inclusion criteria: * Intractability: Two AEDs, one of which was either Dilantin, Tegretol, Carbatrol, or Trileptal used in appropriate doses, have failed due to inefficacy, not intolerance. * Frequency and Duration: Persistence of disabling seizures at 6 per year or greater for less than two years after onset, or after recurrence if initial treatment resulted in seizure freedom for 6 or more months. * Age: 12 years or older at baseline visit. * History: Simple and complex partial seizures, with or without secondarily generalized seizures beginning in childhood or later, with or without febrile convulsions earlier. * Absence of a history of serious cerebral insult after the age of 5; a progressive neurological disorder; mental retardation (I.Q. less than 70); psychogenic seizures; focal neurological deficits other than memory disturbances; unequivocal focal extratemporal EEG slowing or interictal spikes; or lesions on neuroimaging outside of the mesial temporal area. * Seizure semiology: Auras that occur in isolation and are not primary sensory other than olfactory or gustatory. Absence of initial focal motor movements other than automatisms or dystonic posturing. Presence of postictal confusion. * Neurological examination: No unexplained focal or lateralized neurological deficits other than memory dysfunction. * Baseline QOL and ancillary outcome data: * Adolescents - QOLIE-48-AD, CHQ, CBCL, PANAS, Life Events Scale, FAC, FEICS-PC completed. * Adults - QOLIE-82/ESI55, locus…