The validation of the disease-specific questionnaire for health-related quality of life in Thai patients with hemifacial spasm.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the reliability and validity of the Thai version of disease-specific health-related quality of life instrument for patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS) as well as their response to botulinum toxin treatment. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A Thai version of HFS-30 has been developed with the permission of the author. Thirty patients with HFS were asked to complete this Thai HFS-30, the 6-point disability scale before treatment and between four and six weeks after botulinum toxin injections. Peak improvement (0-100%) was subjectively assessed by each patient between four and six weeks after injection. They were also asked to answer the existing Thai SF-36 questionnaire before treatment to test its correlation with Thai HFS-30. Another group of ten patients completed the questionnaire and then a second identical copy after a 2-week interval. The reliability, validity, and responsiveness were subsequently analyzed. RESULTS: The Thai HFS-30 showed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.78 and no significant difference of a test-retest reliability. The total content validity was 0.88 (range 0.5-1.0). There were good correlations between both the Physical and Mental Health parts of the Thai HFS-30 and Thai SF-36 (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). The Thai HFS-30 also demonstrated a response to treatment similar to the 6-point disability scale and the peak improvement. CONCLUSION: The Thai version of HFS-30 is a valid, reliable, and sensitive to change instrument for disease specific health-related quality of life assessment.

Anxiety and depression in Thai epileptic patients.

OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of depression and anxiety in Thai epileptic patients at Songklanagarind Hospital, a tertiary care center in the South of Thailand. MATERIAL AND METHOD: One hundred and twenty six patients were included in the present study. A HADS questionnaire and demographics data were used for data collection in the present cross-sectional study. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent of the respondents had anxiety and 20% had depression. Predictors of anxiety by univariate analysis were being female (p = 0.033) and seizure frequency (p = 0.001). Predictors of depression were seizure frequency (p = 0.001) and a history of trauma associated with seizure activity (p = 0.005). Age, type of seizure, amount of medication, duration of disease, socioeconomic status, occupation, education level, and marital status were not predictors of depression or anxiety. CONCLUSION: There is a high prevalence of depression and anxiety in Thai epileptics. Risk factors for depression are seizure frequency and history of trauma while for anxiety they are gender and frequency of seizure.