Depressive symptoms contribute to quality of life in children with epilepsy

BackgroundImprovement 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.AimsThe aim of this study was to evaluate QOL in children with epilepsy and to identify the strongest predictors of the same.MethodsA 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.ResultsThe 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.ConclusionsSymptoms 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.