title: Depressive symptoms contribute to quality of life in children with epilepsy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improvement of the quality of life (QOL) for children with epilepsy is one of the most important therapeutic goals. It is widely acknowledged that in adults with epilepsy one of the best QOL predictors is psychiatric comorbidity. In children with epilepsy, however, it is not clear whether psychiatric comorbidity impairs QOL.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate QOL in children with epilepsy and to identify the strongest predictors of the same.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 28 enrolled patients completed the Questionnaire for Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life in Children (KINDL-R) and 3 assessments of clinical status: the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS-C), the Children Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS), and the Side Effects and Life Satisfaction (SEALS). Various demographic and clinical factors were analyzed as possible predictors of KINDL-R scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The strongest predictor of QOL was the total DSRS-C score (r = -0.69, p < 0.01), which also predicted physical (r = -0.58, p < 0.01) and emotional wellbeing (r = -0.53, p < 0.05) subscale scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Symptoms of depression were more predictive of QOL than were seizure type, seizure duration, number and adverse effects of AEDs, or anxiety. Number of AEDs did have an effect, just not as prominent as symptoms of depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Fumikazu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan. Electronic address: ykimu@yamanashi.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanemura
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tando
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hosaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aihara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Children; Depression; Depression self-rating scale for children (DSRS-C); Epilepsy; Quality of life (QOL); Questionnaire for measuring health-related quality of life in children (KINDL-R)