Anxiety and its effect factors in children with epilepsy / 中华神经医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the anxiety state of children with epilepsy and explore the influence of patients' depression, personality and guardians' anxiety, depression and personality on the patients' anxiety state. Methods Ninety-five epileptic children (epilepsy group) and their guardians were assessed to rate their anxiety, depression and personality with Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC), Depression Self Rating Scale for Children (DSRS), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire of children and adult (EPQ). One hundred and eighteen children recovered from upper respiratory infection were included in our study as control group. Results The SASC scores in the epilepsy group were higher than those in the control group (P＜0.05); in the epilepsy group, the SASC scores of girls were higher than those of boys (P＜0.05);the anxiety level of patients of all ages increased with ages; SASC scores in epilepsy group aged 13-15 years were higher than that of control group (P＜0.05). The SASC scores were positively correlated to the DSRS scores and the scores of N and P dimension of EPQ, and negatively correlated to scores of E dimension of EPQ in the epileptic group (P＜0.05). The SASC scores of patients were positively correlated to the SAS scores of guardians and negatively to scores of E dimension of EPQ in guardians (P＜0.05). No correlation between SASC scores of patients and scores of guardians' BDI and P, N dimensions of EPQ was noted (P＞0.05). Under the condition that educational level of guardians were the same, no significant differences in the SASC scores were noted between epilepsy group and control group (P＞0.05). Under the condition that educational level of guardians were different, no significant differences in the SASC scores were noted in the epilepsy group (P＞0.05). Under the condition that the occupation of guardians were the same, no significant differences in the SASC scores were noted between epilepsy group and control group (P＞0.05). Although the guardians' occupation was different (workers, farmers or administration staff), no significant differences in their children's SASC scores were noted in the epilepsy group (P＞0.05). The epileptic seizure type (partial or generalized seizure), neuroimaging changes and course of the disease had no significant influence on the patients' SASC scores in the epilepsy group (P＞0.05). Conclusion Anxiety level of children with epilepsy is higher than that of the healthy ones, which is related to gender,and age of children, anxiety or depression level and some personality of themselves and guardians, but not correlated to epileptic seizure type, neuroimaging changes, course of the disease, guardians' educational level and occupation.