Epilepsy and the Quality of Everyday Life. Findings from a Study of People with Well-controlled Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a stigmatising disorder and available evidence suggests that its diagnosis can have important psychosocial consequences and severely reduce the quality of an individual's everyday life. A number of studies have examined the psychosocial aspects of living with epilepsy, but these have generally involved groups of patients with severe or intractable epilepsy, so that the prevalence of problems may be over-estimated. The present study examined psychosocial functioning in a group of people in whom epilepsy was well-controlled; the majority had been seizure-free for at least two years. In doing so, it drew upon a model of quality of life which incorporated physical, social and psychological domains. Among this group of people, psychosocial functioning and adjustment to epilepsy appeared high, with low reported levels of distress. This is an important finding, not least for people with epilepsy themselves.