[Features of maternal behavior in women with epilepsy]

To study characteristics of maternal behavior in women with epilepsy.

Twenty-three women with epilepsy, aged 25-35 years, with one or more children, aged 0-10 years, were interviewed. Thirty age-matched women were included in the control group. The following psychological methods were used: the projective test 'Mother and Child', the Scale of the degree of rejection of a child in the family, the Parent Institution Study Test Questionnaire (PARI), the projective methodology 'Unfinished sentences', a method for diagnosing the level of empathic abilities.

The style of child upbringing in women with epilepsy is authoritarian, directive. Often there is egocentrism, fixation on one's own behalf, internal coldness. Mothers with epilepsy have a reduced level of empathy and are irritable, anxious, hyperopic, indulgent, emotionally cold, hypochondriac, uncritical, dependent, devout, conceited.