[Quality-of-life scales for patients with drug-resistant partial epilepsy]

Epilepsy is a chronic condition with numerous social and psychological consequences. Research on quality of life in epilepsy is characterized by different kind of methodology. Quality of life is worse in epileptic patients than in the general population. Quality of life is also comparable or worse in epileptic patients than in patients with other chronic conditions. But quality of life in well-controlled epileptic patients is similar to quality of life in healthy persons. Frequency of seizures seems to be one of the most relevant determinants of poor quality-of-life scores. Being seizure free is a necessary but not sufficient condition to have a good quality of life. Quality of life is worsened by the co-existence of depression. The impact of surgical treatment on quality of life is positive, in all ages, in correlation with seizure control. It is difficult to analyze the impact of drug therapy on quality of life. Because of the lack of a standardized approach summarizing the literature in the field remains extremely difficult.