The contribution of seizures to psychosocial ill-health.
Persons with a chronic health condition may be disadvantaged compared to others, though the precise pattern of disadvantage will vary from one condition to another. Persons with epilepsy have been shown to be at increased risk of both psychological morbidity and social disadvantage. Various clinical characteristics of epilepsy have been linked to these psychosocial risks, primary among which is seizure frequency: studies linking seizure frequency to psychosocial ill-health are reviewed here. Given the apparently powerful influence of seizure frequency, it is unsurprising that psychosocial health trajectories in epilepsy are very closely linked to its clinical course-but the relationship is not a completely linear one. Recent research has begun to unravel factors other than seizure frequency which appear promoting or protective of psychosocial ill-health. The need for a more nuanced approach to understanding the causes of psychosocial ill-health is highlighted, as is an important distinction between epilepsy as biomedically defined disease and as socially defined illness.
Jacoby
Ann
A
Division of Public Health, University of Liverpool, Whelan Building, The Quadrangle, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK. ajacoby@liv.ac.uk
Thapar
Ajay
A
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011584:Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012640:Seizures / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*