Association of demographic, clinical and treatment variables with quality of life of patients with epilepsy in Greece.
OBJECTIVE
The aim was to study the influence of patients' age, frequency and type of seizures, disease duration, number of AEDs and use of benzodiazepines on the quality of life of patients with epilepsy.


METHODS
We consecutively identified 223 patients with epilepsy who attended the epilepsy outpatient clinics at three university hospitals in Greece. Quality of life was evaluated by QOLIE-31. One-way analysis was used to assess the association of the studied factors and QOLIE-31 subscales. After checking for co-linearity, we performed multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis with all the variables that on univariate analysis showed a statistically significant effect on each subscale of QOLIE-31 to explore which of the studied factors affect independently on QOLIE-31 scores.


RESULTS
Of a total of 223 patients, 118 (52.95%) were men; mean age was 35.18 +/- 13.22; mean duration of the disease was 13 years; 58 (26%) patients had generalized seizures, 93 (41.7%) had PS, and 72 (32.3%) of the patients had PsG; 85 (38.1%) were on polytherapy and 38 (17%) were taking benzodiazepines. Independent factors affecting QoL were: seizure frequency (Overall QoL P = 0.0001, Seizure worry and Emotional well-being P < 0.0001, Energy/fatigue and Social functioning P = 0.01); duration of the disease (Overall QoL and Energy/fatigue P = 0.01, Seizure worry P = 0.008, Cognitive functioning P < 0.0001); polytherapy only for the Emotional well-being P < 0.0001; and use of benzodiazepines (Overall QoL, Energy/fatigue, Social functioning P = 0.002, Cognitive functioning P < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that QoL in epileptic patients might be affected, in addition to the other established factors (high frequency of seizures and polytherapy), by the daily use of benzodiazepines as adjunctive therapy. Change of medical strategy concerning this medication may lead to improving the QoL of these patients.
Piperidou
Charitomeni
C
Department of Neurology, Democritus University of Thrace, University General Hospital, Alexandroupolis, Greece. cpiperid@med.duth.gr
Karlovasitou
Anna
A
Triantafyllou
Nikolaos
N
Dimitrakoudi
Evagelia
E
Terzoudi
Aikaterini
A
Mavraki
Eleni
E
Trypsianis
Grigorios
G
Vadikolias
Konstantinos
K
Heliopoulos
Ioannis
I
Vassilopoulos
Dimitrios
D
Balogiannis
Stavros
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004644:Emotions; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012640:Seizures / Q000145:classification* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D001569:Benzodiazepines