Self-management strategies for people with epilepsy: An overview of reviews

This overview of systematic reviews aimed to appraise evidence regarding self-management strategies on health-related quality of life, self-efficacy, medication compliance, seizure status and psychosocial outcomes compared to usual care for people with epilepsy.

Databases were searched until September 2022 using MeSH terms included OVID Medline, Embase and Cochrane. Following application of eligibility criteria, data were extracted and quality of articles was assessed using the AMSTAR2 checklist. A narrative synthesis of evidence included certainty of evidence evaluated using a Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.

The 12 selected reviews contained three meta-analyses and 91 unique primary studies. One review considered only epilepsy with intellectual disability and three considered paediatrics. Interventions included technologically-based interventions, small group discussion, or counselling and educational programs. There was high certainty evidence to suggest self-management is associated with improvement in health-related quality of life and moderate certainty evidence to suggest improvement in depression symptoms. There was low certainty evidence to suggest a modest reduction in negative health events and a minimal increase in the satisfaction with life. There was no evidence of benefit favouring self-management on measures of adherence epilepsy self-management, perception of self-efficacy, medication adherence or seizure status.

Despite high certainty evidence to suggest that self-management strategies for people with epilepsy improve health-related quality of life, benefits have not been demonstrated for outcomes that would be expected to be associated with these improvements, such as seizure status. These results provide support for self-management strategies to supplement usual care for people with epilepsy.