ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS

Abstract

Living with epilepsy requires a complex approach to many aspects of this episodic, chronic disorder. The medical science works to add years to life, while human nature wants to add life to years. Aspects that have an impact on QOL include: seizure related aspects as seizure type, frequency, severity, duration, and medication side effects, and individual related aspects as sex, age at onset, employment, level of education, social adjustment, and psychosocial wellbeing. This work aimed at studying the impact of epilepsy and AEDs over different aspects of QOL of adult Egyptian epileptic patients. It was conducted over 100 patients using the translated form of the QOLIE-31 inventory for determination of the QOL, together with WAIS for determination of IQ, and 50 healthy persons for comparison of the EEG changes. We found that: 44 % of our patients had bad to fair QOL ( 5 % and 39 % respectively), 43 % had good QOL and 13 % had very good QOL.