[Rehabilitation prognosis in the onset of epilepsy following entry into professional life]. / Rehabilitationsprognose bei Epilepsiebeginn nach Eintritt ins Berufsleben.

ABSTRACT

The type of occupation proposed as well as factors determining these proposals, i.e. vocational prognosis, were examined in 58 persons to be rehabilitated who already had been integrated into working life at the time of epilepsy onset and participated in a one- to three-week vocational assessment programme in a vocational training center. Suggestions for vocational retraining were made to 49 of the 58 clients, with clerical occupations proposed to almost half of them, manual ones to appr. one third, and technical training to a sixth of the clients. This distribution of training suggestions is the reverse of the clients' former occupations, and did not always meet the wishes expressed by the clients. Careful evaluation and counselling might reduce some of these discrepancies. The level of the occupational training proposed was influenced most strongly by work rate, with dosage of anticonvulsive drugs being the most important factor in slowing the clients' pace. Psychological problems were common, did however not primarily influence the level of training proposed, but rather the decision between vocational training vs. invalidity pension or medical treatment.