| Abstract [eng] |
AIM. To find out the reaction to the diagnosis of epilepsy, people well-being, quality of life and their association with demographics, clinical data, level of anxiety and depression, personality type. MATERIALS AND METHODS. An anonymous questionnaire survey was carried out at Vilnius University Santaros Clinics between September 2022 and March 2023. It consisted of questions about patients' well-being and behavior after epilepsy diagnosis, a neurological disorders depression inventory for epilepsy, general anxiety disorder scale and Ten Item Personality Inventory. RESULTS. Sixty-seven subjects participated in the survey, 41 (61.2%) were women. The median age of the respondents was 32.50 (±18,75) years. At the time of epilepsy diagnosis, 32 (53.3%) subjects felt lost, 27 (45.8%) sad, 25 (43.1%) scared and 19 (32.8%) disappointed. Although 70% (43) of the subjects understood their diagnosis, 64% (40) of the respondents described coming to terms with the idea of being ill as difficult. Those who did not understand their diagnosis were more likely to go to another doctor to confirm their diagnosis (p=0.033). Suicidal ideation was reported by 9 (14.3%) subjects and was more common in the non-working population (p=0.01). They were more likely to feel hopeless (p=0.01), frustrated (p=0.09) and lonely (p=0.001) at the time of diagnosis. Depression and anxiety were associated with having suicidal thoughts (50% vs 8,9%, p=0.003 ir 66,7% vs 16,7%, p=0.001 respectively). More than half (37 (58.7%)) of the subjects thought that epilepsy negatively affected their quality of life. Subjects with low awareness scores were more likely to have suicidal thoughts (p=0.02). CONCLUSION. At the time of epilepsy diagnosis, patients feel confused, sad, scared and frustrated. Most of the subjects understood their diagnosis but described the process of coming to terms with the idea of being ill as difficult. The response to epilepsy is independent of demographics. More frequent seizures were associated with suicidality. Epilepsy had a negative impact on the subjects' quality of life. Suicidal ideation was more common among those who were unemployed, depressed, anxious and had low personality awareness scores. KEYWORDS. Epilepsy; quality of life; reaction to epilepsy; reaction to diagnosis. |
