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Factors affecting the quality of life in drug-resistant epilepsy patients

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Abstract

Epilepsy patients whose seizures cannot be controlled by treatment have a lower quality of life (QoL). The aim of the present study was to compare the potential factors affecting the QoL in patients who were seizure-free with medication or who had drug-resistant epilepsy. The study included 46 drug-resistant and 42 seizure-free epilepsy patients. The demographic and clinical features of the patients were investigated for their effects on patient QoL. The QoL was assessed by the QoL in Epilepsy Inventory-89 and depression was detected by the Beck Depression Inventory. The QoL was significantly lower in the drug-resistant patients than in the seizure-free epilepsy patients (p < 0.001). Depression, lower education level, and unemployment were associated with lower QoL scores (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, p < 0.001, respectively). After adjusting for lower education level and unemployment, depression remained as an independent factor affecting QoL (p < 0.05). In addition to their efforts to control and stop seizures, clinicians should remain aware of depression and treat it effectively to improve the QoL of drug-resistant epilepsy patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Trakya University Medical Faculty, 22030, Edirne, Turkey

    Vedat Akdemir & Baburhan Guldiken

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Trakya University Medical Faculty, Edirne, Turkey

    Necdet Sut

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  1. Vedat Akdemir
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Correspondence to Baburhan Guldiken.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval was received from the local ethics committee.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Akdemir, V., Sut, N. & Guldiken, B. Factors affecting the quality of life in drug-resistant epilepsy patients. Acta Neurol Belg 116, 513–518 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-016-0622-5

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