Temporal epilepsy outpatients' physical and mental health predictors

e-Libro de Resúmenes del Symposium Hispano-Luso de Medicina Conductual y Psicología de la Salud 20 Temporal epilepsy outpatients’ physical and mental health predictors Rute F. Meneses Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Portugal Universidade do Porto, Portugal & José P. Ribeiro Universidade do Porto, Portugal Aims: Clinicians have to deal regularly with complaints about health, negative affect (NA), and cognition from Temporal Epilepsy (TE) outpatients. These are in accordance with the literature. Hence, to promote the comprehensive care of these patients, their health was assessed and predictors of worse health perception explored. Method: The Anxiety, Depression, and NA (HADS), Health Status Perception (SF-36v1), Cognitive Function Perception (based on ESI-55), Seizure Control Perception (based on LSSS), and Cognitive Performance (comprehensive battery, under video-EEG recording) of 100 outpatients with clinical evidence of focal epilepsy were assessed. Of the 75 that fulfilled inclusion criteria, 49 had TE. Of those with TE, 42 reported Health Status Perception below Portuguese norms. These were mostly married (n=27), women (n=25), with single seizure type (n =27), on monotherapy (n=21), without side-effects (n=36), co-morbidity (n=31), or previous psychological assessment (n=36). Mean age was 37.76 years and education 7.76 years. Results: In this sub-sample, several variables correlated with Mental and Physical Health (see Table 1). NA and Cognitive Function Perception explained 57.4% of the variance of the Mental Component; NA explained 27.2% of the Physical Component of Health. Conclusion: In general, the results support the routine use of the protocol in TE outpatients and the development of a program focusing on NA and Cognitive Function Perception. Table 1. Correlates of Mental and Physical Health Notes: Age* = Age at Epilepsy onset; LMI = Logical Memory I; CFP = Cognitive Function Perception Address correspondence to: [email protected] Mental Component Physical Component Correlates r p r p Education - - .31 .04 Age* - - -.43 .005 LMI (N=41) - - .37 .02 I.A.Test (N=39) - - .36 .02 Anxiety -.55 .000 -.36 .02 Depression -.51 .001 -.48 .001 Negative Affect -.67 .000 -.54 .000 CFP .62 .000