Highlights
- •We investigated the effects of a rehabilitation program for patients with epilepsy.
- •Outcome measures included emotional adaptation to epilepsy and aspects of QOL.
- •Patients with early and chronic epilepsy showed similar psychosocial distress at admission.
- •Both groups benefited from the rehabilitation program to a similar extent.
Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the efficacy of a specialized inpatient rehabilitation program in patients
with early in comparison with chronic epilepsy.
Methods
We performed a prospective, open pre/post study using a parallel group design. Patients
with early epilepsy (EE, treatment with anti-seizure medication [ASM] ≤ 1 year) or
with chronic epilepsy (CE, ASM treatment > 5 years) completed questionnaires at the
time of their admission to the rehabilitation program and at discharge. Outcome measures
comprised scales from the PESOS questionnaire (PErformance, SOciodemographic aspects, Subjective estimation; e.g., emotional adaptation to epilepsy) as well as screening
instruments for depression (Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy,
NDDI-E) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, GAD-7). Linear mixed models
(LMMs) were used to determine the effects of the program in the total group and to
compare the effects between patients with EE and CE.
Results
The analyses included 79 patients with EE and 157 patients with CE. Baseline comparisons
revealed differences in disease-related and sociodemographic variables (e.g., patients
with EE were older, those with CE had a higher seizure frequency and a higher rate
of unemployment; all p < .01). LMMs showed significant improvements in emotional adaptation
to epilepsy, depression, anxiety, overall quality of life and overall health as well
as in perceived overall restrictions because of epilepsy and the subjective level
of information about epilepsy (all p < .001). Despite the different duration of epilepsy,
baseline levels as well as improvements did not differ between patients with EE and
CE (all p > .05) except for the perceived level of information, which was significantly
lower in patients with EE at admission and improved to a higher extent in this group
(both p < .001).
Conclusion
Both patients with EE and patients with CE who are referred to a specialized comprehensive
rehabilitation program benefit from the participation in this program with respect
to emotional adaptation to epilepsy, aspects of quality of life, and level of information
about epilepsy.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
ASM (anti-seizure medication), CE (chronic epilepsy), EE (early epilepsy), GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale), LMM (linear mixed model), NDDI-E (Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy), PESOS (Performance, Sociodemographic aspects, Subjective estimation), QOL (quality of life)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 26, 2022
Accepted:
November 11,
2022
Received in revised form:
November 3,
2022
Received:
June 8,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
