What about us? Siblings of children with epilepsy.
BACKGROUND
It is known that epilepsy has a severe impact in the quality of life of the patients; however, it affects the lives of all family members. The psychosocial repercussions of epilepsy are often of greater significance than the seizures themselves.


METHODS
This was a prospective study, conducted from January 2005 to December 2005 at the pediatric epilepsy clinic of our University Hospital. Parents were interviewed by one of the authors according to a structured questionnaire about the impact of epilepsy in the life of the siblings of children with epilepsy.


RESULTS
One hundred and twenty-seven children, siblings of 78 patients with epilepsy were evaluated. From the 127 siblings of children with epilepsy, 60 were girls and 67 were boys. Ages ranged from 5 to 18 years old (mean=11.7 years). After the diagnosis of epilepsy, the siblings had only negative feelings toward the disease, mostly sadness and fear.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data showed that the impact of epilepsy in the lives of siblings of children with epilepsy is much more severe than previously suspected.
Tsuchie
Sara Y
SY
Department of Neurology, State University of Campinas, FCM/Unicamp, P.O. Box 6111, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Guerreiro
Marilisa M
MM
Chuang
Eunice
E
Baccin
Carlos Eduardo
CE
Montenegro
Maria Augusta
MA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires