Psychosocial Assessment of Children with Epilepsy / 대한소아신경학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Some of epileptic children are known to have behavioral problems. But some experts deny frequent association of behavioral problems in epileptic children, compared to non epileptic children. The purpose of this study is to know the relations between the clinical characteristics and behavioral problems in epileptic children. METHODS: Ninety-nine patients were grouped according to underlying disease causing epilepy, seizure type, occurrence of seizure within recent 1 year and duration of treatment. CBCL(Child Behavior Chencklist), which were modified by Oh et al., was used as a tool for psychosocial assessment. RESULTS: 1) Symptomatic group had higher risk than cryptogenic group on school in social competence scale. In behavioral problem scale. Symptomatic group showed none of social problems or thought problems. 2) Partial seizure group has higher risk than generalized seizure group on social problems in behavioral problem scale. 3) Patients with recent seizure experience had higher risk on social, school in social competence scale, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, total behavioral problems in behavioral scale. 4) There was no correlation between duration of treatment and psychosocial parameters. CONCLUSION: In epileptic children, behavioral problem was not significantly outstanding compared with non epileptic children. It appears that some of their behavior problems have been originated mainly from problems in social adaptation, which might have not been caused by disease itself, but by social prejudice and social misunderstanding.