Psychological well-being of people with epilepsy in Norway

The subjective well-being of people with epilepsy has been studied extensively, but only sparingly in Norway. In 2005, members of the Norwegian Epilepsy Association responded to a short version of the Hopkins Symptom Check List (“psychological distress”) and to a version of the Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, also termed the Cantril Ladder (“life satisfaction”). In this article, the relationships between responses to the two questionnaires (the two outcome variables) and seizure frequency, medication side effects, comorbidity, and surgery, as well as demographic variables such as age, sex, marital status, occupational status, education, and place of residence, are addressed. The analyses demonstrate clear effects of seizure frequency (P < 0.001) and medication side effects (P < 0.001) on both outcome variables. People with no comorbidity (no additional diagnoses) reported less psychological distress (P < 0.001) and greater satisfaction with life (P < 0.05) than those who reported additional diagnoses. The factor having the strongest impact on the psychological well-being of these people was medication side effects.