[Psychosocial consequences and surgical treatment of epilepsy. A review]

Epilepsy is one the commonest neurological diseases. In 25% of the cases, particularly in patients with temporal foci, the seizures prove to be resistant to medicinal treatment. Several investigations have stressed that these patients have pronounced psychosocial problems which may be more important to the patient than the actual seizures. Taking into consideration the WHO definition of health as complete physical, mental and social well-being, patients with epilepsy have problems in all of these dimensions. The major problems are social isolation and employment. Surgical treatment of epilepsy has a pronounced effect on the seizures in 90% of the operations in the best series but it is still uncertain whether reduction in the number of seizures also implies better quality of life. The present data suggest improvement in the psychosocial conditions of the patients who functioned best preoperatively and who became seizure-free after operation. The importance of further longitudinal studies emphasizing the psychosocial aspects is stressed.