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. 2013 Dec;50(4):320-324.
doi: 10.4274/Npa.y6374. Epub 2013 Dec 1.

Self-Esteem, Social Phobia and Depression Status in Patients with Epilepsy

Ayşe Kutlu  1 , Gökçen Gökçe  1 , Ülkü Büyükburgaz  1 , Macit Selekler  1 , Sezer KOMŞUOğLU  1
Affiliations

Self-Esteem, Social Phobia and Depression Status in Patients with Epilepsy

Ayşe Kutlu et al. Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2013 Dec.

Abstract
in English, Turkish

Introduction: The increased risk for psychiatric disorders in epilepsy can be related to a number of clinical, psychosocial and biological factors. Due to the unpredictability of seizures and the possibility that they may occur at any time and in any place, patients with epilepsy may develop social phobia and may have feelings of worthlessness and stigma. These factors decrease their psychosocial function, self-efficacy, and quality of life and even increase the suicide rate. Considering the above-mentioned scientific data, the present study was designed to investigate phobia, self-esteem and depression status in patients with epilepsy.

Methods: One hundred thirty-two patients (aged 21-52 years) and age- and gender-matched control group of 61 subjects (aged 25-60 years) were included in this study. All patients in both groups were administered the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

Results: The mean ages of the patient group and the healthy controls were 29.66±11.3 and 32.16±7.99, respectively. There was no statistical significance between the two groups in terms of age and sex (p>0.05). BDI, LSAS and CSEI scores in the patient group were statistically significantly different than in the control group (p<0.05).

Discussion: Our results showed that social phobia, lower self-esteem and depression are important comorbid conditions in epileptic patients. Psychiatric disorders are usually underrecognized and undertreated in patients with epilepsy. Therefore, it is very important to identify and treat the psychiatric comorbid conditions in epilepsy because of their significant burden on patients' quality of life.

Giriş: Epilepside psikiyatrik bozuklukların görülme riski, çeşitli klinik, psikososyal ve biyolojik faktörlere bağlıdır. Nöbetlerin önceden belirlenememesi ve herhangi bir yer ve zamanda ortaya çıkabilmesi, epileptik hastalarda sosyal fobi ve değersizlik hissi gelişimine neden olabilir. Bu faktörler hastaların psikososyal fonksiyonunu, yaşam kalitesini azaltırken intihar oranını arttırır. Bu çalışmada epileptik hastalarda depresyon, sosyal fobi ve benlik saygısı düzeyi araştırılmıştır.

Yöntem: Çalışmaya, 132 hasta (21–52 yaş); yaş ve cinsiyet uyumlu 61 kontrol dahil edilmiştir. Liebowitz Sosyal Anksiye Ölçeği (LSAÖ), Coopersmith Benlik Saygısı Ölçeği (Coopersmith BSÖ) ve Beck Depresyon Ölçeği (BDÖ) her iki gruba da uygulanmıştır.

Bulgular: Hasta ve kontrol grubundaki kişilerin ortalama yaşı sırasıyla, 29,66±11,3 ve 32,16±7,99’dur. LSAÖ, Coopersmith BSÖ ve BDÖ, hasta grubunda kontrol grubuna göre anlamlı oranda farklı bulunmuştur (p<0,05).

Sonuç: Bizim sonuçlarımız, sosyal fobi, düşük benlik saygısı ve depresyonun epileptik hastalarda önemli psikiyatrik komorbid faktörler olduğunu göstermiştir. Epilepside psikiyatrik bozukluklar sıklıkla atlanmakta ve iyi tedavi edilmemektedir. Bu nedenle, epilepside komorbid faktörleri tanımlamak ve tedavi etmek, hastaların yaşam kalitesininin iyileştirilmesi için çok önemlidir.

Keywords: Self-esteem; epilepsy; social phobia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors reported no conflict of interest related to this article. Çıkar çatışması: Yazarlar bu makale ile ilgili olarak herhangi bir çıkar çatışması bildirmemişlerdir.

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