Negative Emotions in Children with Newly Diagnosed Epilepsy

Purpose: To understand the emotional predicament in children with recently diagnosed idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy. Methods: We used the well‐tried method of structured projection for the first time in children with epilepsy. Thirty‐six children with epilepsy, aged 7–15 years (mean age, 9.5 yea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epilepsia (Copenhagen) 2000-03, Vol.41 (3), p.326-331
Main Authors: Oostrom, K. J., Schouten, A., Olthof, T., Peters, A. C. B., Jennekens‐Schinkel, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Affective Symptoms - diagnosis
Affective Symptoms - psychology
Age Factors
Attitude to Health
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Children
Epilepsy
Epilepsy - diagnosis
Epilepsy - psychology
Female
Guilt
Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy
Humans
Judgment
Male
Medical sciences
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Neurology
Projective Techniques - statistics & numerical data
Psychopathology
Sex Factors
Shame
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Summary:Purpose: To understand the emotional predicament in children with recently diagnosed idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy. Methods: We used the well‐tried method of structured projection for the first time in children with epilepsy. Thirty‐six children with epilepsy, aged 7–15 years (mean age, 9.5 years) and in 35 control children aged 7–15 years (mean age, 9.4 years), attributed shame and guilt in relation to three types of situation (non‐illness related, illness related, and epilepsy related). Children were evaluated twice: shortly after diagnosis, before antiepileptic drug (AED) use and after an interval of 3 months. Results: Children with epilepsy and healthy controls were similar in their way of attributing shame and guilt. However, the type of situation was of influence: Both children with epilepsy and healthy children attributed more shame to incompetence due to epilepsy than to incompetence due to other illnesses. Conclusions: Increased affective problems in childhood epilepsy cannot be explained by excessive attribution of shame and guilt, affects known to be important precursors of psycho‐pathology, yet both healthy children and children with epilepsy attribute more shame to epilepsy than to other illnesses. Epilepsy is not like any other disease.
ISSN:0013-9580
1528-1167
DOI:10.1111/j.1528-1157.2000.tb00163.x