title: Efficacy of Attribution Retraining on Mental Health of Epileptic Children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epilepsy affects children's quality of life and leads to social and mental problems. Promoting the mental health of children, especially epileptic ones, and preventing problems affecting them constitute major concerns for every country. Mental health promotion requires intervention programs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We sought to assess the efficacy of attribution retraining on the mental health of epileptic children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study is a semi-experimental investigation with a pretest and posttest design and includes a control group. Thirty children, comprising 17 boys and 13 girls, were selected randomly from the Iranian epilepsy association in Tehran and assigned to experimental and control groups. They answered to the general health questionnaire (Goldberg and Hiller, 1979). The experimental group participated in 11 training sessions (twice a week; 45 minutes for each session) and received attribution retraining. The data were analyzed using the multiple analysis of covariance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings showed that the experimental group, in comparison with the control group, experienced a reduction in physical symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and depression and an increase in mental health significantly (P < 0.01) after the training sessions. There were no significant differences, however, between the two groups at 6 weeks' follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attribution retraining improved mental health in the epileptic children in our study. It, therefore, seems to be an appropriate intervention for promoting the mental health of children.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Neurorehabilitation Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Masoume
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pourmohamadreza Tajrishi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Exceptional Children Education, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Saeid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Exceptional Children Education, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Najafi Fard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tehran University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Saheb
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yousefi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tehran University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Athar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohammadi Malek Abadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Hosein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Delavar Kasmaei
keywords: Attribution Retraining; Epilepsy; Mental Health