Patient-perceived risk associated with epilepsy and its medication treatment

Regardless of the expert advice of health care practitioners, it is ultimately the patient’s decision how to best manage his or her condition. This decision can be influenced by the perceived risk of both the disease and its treatment. The objective of this study was to develop a survey to evaluate perceived risk associated with epilepsy and its medication treatment. Risk was evaluated in five domains: performance, financial, social, psychological, and physical. A 40-item patient-perceived risk questionnaire was developed and administered to patients at one university-affiliated epilepsy clinic. Pearson correlation and regression analysis was used to identify significant components of overall perceived risk. A total of 64 patients completed the survey. Performance and physical risk significantly explained 34% of the variance in overall perceived risk associated with epilepsy. The overall perceived risk associated with the treatment of epilepsy was explained by performance, physical, psychological, and social risks (r2 = 0.386). Thus, the treatment of epilepsy poses more challenges for patients to maintain their lifestyle than the disease itself.