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Psychosocial treatment programs in epilepsy: a review
1rmittan@charter.net
Epilepsy & Behavior : E&B
|September 29, 2009
Summary
Psychosocial interventions for epilepsy show limited success and face barriers like low patient participation and cost-effectiveness. Further development and integration into clinics are needed for these epilepsy treatments.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Psychiatry
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Psychosocial problems represent a significant unmet need in epilepsy management.
- Existing literature lacks comprehensive reviews of psychosocial interventions for epilepsy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review published psychosocial treatment interventions for epilepsy in the English medical literature.
- To identify the efficacy, challenges, and future directions for psychosocial interventions in epilepsy care.
Main Methods:
- A literature search was conducted to identify outcome studies of psychosocial interventions for epilepsy.
- Seventeen outcome studies evaluating 15 distinct treatments were included in the review.
Main Results:
- Only four of the reviewed interventions have progressed to current use, indicating a "survival past proof of concept" problem.
- While many treatments showed limited success, some improved quality of life, social adjustment, and seizure adjustment through medical education.
- A notable exception was a psychological intervention demonstrating outstanding results for seizure control in refractory epilepsy patients.
Conclusions:
- Psychosocial treatments for epilepsy face challenges including limited success, low cost-effectiveness, and unexpected patient participation barriers.
- Research limitations include few control groups, reliance on self-report measures, and limited compliance data.
- Targeted development and integration of psychosocial interventions into specialty epilepsy clinics are recommended.
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