Ways of coping with epilepsy and related factors in adolescence

The aim of this study was to investigate ways of coping and related factors with regard to the psychopathology of adolescents with epilepsy (AwE). In this study, 41 AwE and 34 healthy controls were assessed. It was found that 24% of AwE had attention problems and 41% had overall problems at a clinical level. The scores for thought problems, attention problems, aggressive behavior and externalizing problems were higher in the epilepsy group. In addition, the AwE had lower self-esteem, and as the adolescents had higher scores for overall problem behavior, they also received lower problem-focused coping scores. As an adolescent's self-esteem increases, problem-focused coping is used more frequently, whereas emotion-focused coping is used less frequently. It is suggested that interventions to help adolescents improve their strategies for coping with stress may mitigate some of the problems with adaptive functioning, which are common in AwE.