Songül Şenadım1, Sezin Alpaydın Baslo2, Ersin Uygun3, Mücahid Erdoğan2, Zeynep Ezgi Balçik2, Betül Tekin4, Dilek Ataklı2. 1. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Aydın University, Istanbul, Turkey. 2. Department of Neurology, Bakirkoy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatric, Neurologic and Neurosurgical Diseases, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. 3. Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey. 4. Department of Neurology, Bakirkoy Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatric, Neurologic and Neurosurgical Diseases, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. betultekin2013@gmail.com.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare the styles of coping with stress between patients with epilepsy and healthy individuals and to examine the effects of clinical features on methods of coping with stress. METHODS: The study enrolled 120 patients diagnosed with epilepsy. Forty healthy individuals were included as control group. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded. The patients and controls completed the Coping Strategies with Stress Inventory (COPE), which comprises 60 items distributed into 15 scales. The COPE scores of the patients and controls were compared. RESULTS: Comparing the COPE scores of the patients and controls, the substance use score was higher in the controls. In terms of gender, seeking instrumental social support, active coping, seeking emotional social support, acceptance, and emotion-focused total coping scores were higher in women among patients. In terms of marital status, the positive reinterpretation and growth score of single patients was significantly higher than that of married patients. In patients with a history of febrile convulsions, the active coping, seeking emotional social support, and denial scores were higher. In terms of treatment, for the patients receiving polytherapy, the suppression of competing activities, focus on and venting of emotions, and dysfunctional total coping scores were higher than in patients receiving monotherapy. CONCLUSION: Epilepsy and stress are intertwined conditions. Epilepsy patients, confronted with stress, avoided using alcohol and substances compared to healthy individuals. There were differences among epilepsy patients according to gender, marital status, febrile convulsion history, number of medications, and approaches to coping with stress.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare the styles of coping with stress between patients with epilepsy and healthy individuals and to examine the effects of clinical features on methods of coping with stress. METHODS: The study enrolled 120 patients diagnosed with epilepsy. Forty healthy individuals were included as control group. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded. The patients and controls completed the Coping Strategies with Stress Inventory (COPE), which comprises 60 items distributed into 15 scales. The COPE scores of the patients and controls were compared. RESULTS: Comparing the COPE scores of the patients and controls, the substance use score was higher in the controls. In terms of gender, seeking instrumental social support, active coping, seeking emotional social support, acceptance, and emotion-focused total coping scores were higher in women among patients. In terms of marital status, the positive reinterpretation and growth score of single patients was significantly higher than that of married patients. In patients with a history of febrile convulsions, the active coping, seeking emotional social support, and denial scores were higher. In terms of treatment, for the patients receiving polytherapy, the suppression of competing activities, focus on and venting of emotions, and dysfunctional total coping scores were higher than in patients receiving monotherapy. CONCLUSION:Epilepsy and stress are intertwined conditions. Epilepsypatients, confronted with stress, avoided using alcohol and substances compared to healthy individuals. There were differences among epilepsypatients according to gender, marital status, febrile convulsion history, number of medications, and approaches to coping with stress.