Systemic Family Therapy of Comorbidity of Anxiety and Depression with Epilepsy in Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to find if systemic family therapy (SFT) does work in anxiety and depression with epilepsy in adolescents (ADAE). METHODS: 104 adolescents with epilepsy, aged 13-20 years old, were included from December 2009 to December 2010, the enrolled patients were with anxiety [Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) score ≥14 points] or depression [Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) score ≥20 points]. The patients were randomly divided into the control group (n=52) treated with antiepileptic drugs (AED) and the intervention group (n=52) undergone Systemic Family Therapy (SFT) as well as AED. The AED improvements, anxiety and depression scores, Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Family Assessment Device (FAD) and scale of systemic family dynamics (SSFD) were observed after 3-month treatment. RESULTS: The frequencies of epileptic seizures in intervention group was decreased much more significantly than the control group (4.22±3.54 times/month vs. 6.20±5.86 times/month, p=0.04); and the scores of anxiety (9.52±6.28 points vs. 13.48±8.47 points, p=0.01) and depression (13.86±9.17 points vs. 18.89±8.73 points, p=0.02) were significantly decreased than the control group; meanwhile, the family dynamics and family functions were significantly improved, and the social support was also increased (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: SFT combined with AEDs had better efficacies than AEDs alone, not only the frequency of epileptic seizures was decreased, but also the patients' anxiety and depression were improved, and the family dynamics, family functions and social support were improved.

The teaching strategies of clinical EEG for refresher doctors / 中华医学教育探索杂志

The electroencephalography (EEG) has a wide range of content, complex graphics and abstract theory. Meanwhile, there are differences in professional level, learning ability and subjective initia-tive among refresher doctors. In order to improve the quality of teaching, and to better serve the refresher doctors, the following strategies have been applied in the teaching process. We not only make the training target according to the actual condition of every refresher doctors, but also make them take a correct atti-tude towards study and follow the teaching arrangement. Besides, we not only orient at the operational skills training, including electrode installation, EEG evoked test, Point-of-Care test to eliminate the interference, but also promote the refresher doctors to seek the law of the diagram in the actual interpretation process with longitudinal development view and horizontal comparison perspective. Furthermore, we not only stan-dardize their report, but also broaden their view.