title: Assessment of psychosocial adjustment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy using a standard measure.
abstract: Despite the growing evidence of poor psychosocial adjustment, at present there is no formal method of assessment of social adjustment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). First, we assessed social adjustment in patients with TLE using a self-report questionnaire and compared the results with those from quality-of-life (QOL) scales. Second, we verified the influence of cognitive performance and clinical variables of epilepsy on social adjustment and QOL. We evaluated 35 people with TLE and 38 healthy controls. Patients had worse social adjustment, and it was correlated with worse perception of cognitive function. Attention and verbal memory dysfunctions were negatively correlated with social adjustment. However, there was no significant correlation between cognitive performance and QOL. Regarding clinical variables, persons with left TLE showed worse social adjustment and patients with frequent seizures showed worse QOL. These findings indicate the relevance of evaluating social adjustment and emphasize the importance of cognitive rehabilitation to improved social adjustment.
authors.affiliation: Psychology and Neuropsychology Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, Medical School (IPq-HC-FMUSP), São Paulo, Brazil. ju_gois@hotmail.com
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gois
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vicentiis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moschetta
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kuczynski
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fuentes
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011788:Quality of Life; D012917:Social Adjustment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires