Epilepsy and Quality of Life in the Shadow of Stigmatization

Aim: Because of its chronic nature, epilepsy is a complex disease with psychosocial effects. This study aimed to investigate the stigma and quality of life of individuals with epilepsy. Methods: This study was conducted between January 2022 and September 2022 in the epilepsy outpatient clinic of a university hospital located on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, participants completed the Stigma Scale for Epilepsy (SSE), the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-10 (QOLIE-10), and a sociodemographic data form. Results: The study included 130 patients (83 women and 47 men) with epilepsy. 56.2% of the participants had a medium stigmatization scores and 14.6% had a high stigmatization scores. It was determined that stigmatization was associated with age, education level, employment, and income. Total score of (SSE); participants aged 51 and over, primary school graduates, never worked, and receiving minimum wage were higher. The total SSE score did not differ according to gender, marital status, people with whom they lived together, date of diagnosis, duration of treatment, or date of the last seizure. Participants who had a seizure in the previous year without income had a lower quality-of-life score. It was determined that the QOLIE-10 scores did not differ in terms of gender, age, marital status, employment, education level, people they lived with, date of diagnosis, duration of treatment, and type of epilepsy. Conclusion: The participants with high levels of stigma experienced a significant reduction in quality of life compared with the other groups. Therefore, the potential need for increased support and social rehabilitation for individuals affected by stigmatization should not ignored

Differences between Epilepsy Patients Under Politherapy and Epilepsy Patients Under Monotherapy

AbstractObjective: This study aimed to evaluate demographical variables, clinicalfeatures, neurological examination and cranial imaging results which cause ordetermine the necessity for politherapy treatment in epilepsy patients.Patients and Methods: The patient files of 785 epileptic patients were followedby Marmara University Epilepsy Outpatient Clinic were scanned retrospectivelyand a questionnaire was filled in for each file. Patients were grouped asmonotherapy or politherapy, considering the number of antiepileptics theyused. The demographical variables, clinical features, neurological examinationand imaging results of the two groups were compared. The results wereanalyzed by Student's-t test and chi-square tests.Results: A history of craniotomy and intracranial tumors is more frequent inpolitherapy patients. Also, simple partial seizure, convulsive status epilepticus,pathological neurological examination findings, abnormal EEG, cranialimaging (MRI/CT) and SPECT results were found to be higher in politherapypatients.Conclusion: Politherapy is an important step in epilepsy treatment. However,because of drug-drug interactions and drug side effects it is not the first choice.Determining the differences between patients who use politherapy andmonotherapy will help recognizing the clinical data which may lead topolitherapy need