Perceived impact of epilepsy in teaching hospitals of Tehran University

Background: Epileptic seizures would result inembarrassment in society and have some negative impacton the patients’ social activities. The aim of this study was toshow the perceived impact of epilepsy by patients ondifferent aspect of their social activities includingoccupation, marriage and education.Methods: We studied 179 epileptic patients aged 16 yearsand over using face to face interview. Nine domainsincluding relation to spouses, relation to family members,social life, general health, interpersonal communicationsand friendships, feelings about success, hope for future,ordinary life and cope with others were considered.Results: One hundred and seven men and 72 women werestudied. Nearly 78% of the patients had generalized tonicclonicseizures. More than half of the patients believed thatepilepsy had affected their social life and activities. Generalhealth was negatively affected by this disease more thanany other item. This may be due to uncontrolled attacks ortaking medications. About 15.5% of married and 39% of thesingle patients considered epilepsy as an obstacle to marrywith their ideal spouses and more than half of the employedpersons considered epilepsy as an obstacle for their jobpromotions.Conclusion: Epilepsy frequently impacts on several aspectsof life. The disease negatively affects social life and activities,overall health, feelings about self, ability to work in paidemployments, relationship with spouses, friends, andother family members, future plans, standards of livingand ambitions of epileptic patients. Decreasing suchimpacts should be considered as an important part oftreatment and proper management can certainlyincrease various aspects of life in these patients.