PURPOSE: Children with epilepsy tend to experience more emotional problems compared with healthy controls. The objective of this study was to elucidate the clinical factors influencing the quality of life in children and adolescents with epilepsy. We also evaluated preliminary findings concerning relationships between family factors and child emotional problems. METHODS: Subjects were 90 epilepsy patients aged between 6 and 17 years (mean 12.2+/-3.3 years) and their parents. Parents filled up the Impact of Childhood Illness Scale (ICIS). We compared the differences across patient groups according to the clinical factors such as seizure frequency, epilepsy types and duration, mono- or polytherapy, etc. RESULTS: ICIS subscore for treatment was higher when patients took more than one antiepileptic drugs (p=0.032), and when they still had poor seizure control (p=0.054) by regression analysis. Subscores for treatment, children, parents, and family were analyzed in each clinical factor. CONCLUSION: Epilepsy patients in childhood and adolescent ages have significant impacts on their quality of life and as well as on the family if they are on polytherapy or have poorly controlled seizures.
Adolescent* ; Anticonvulsants ; Child* ; Epilepsy* ; Humans ; Parents ; Quality of Life* ; Seizures