The contribution of illness perceptions to fatigue and sleep problems in youngsters with epilepsy

Abstract

Fatigue Sleep problems Epilepsy a b s t r a c tPurpose: The present study aims to explore the extent to which gender, epilepsy severity and illness perceptions predict fatigue and sleep problems in youngsters with epilepsy.Method: Structured interviews were conducted in 100 young patients (Mage ¼ 13,9, SD ¼ 2.21; 41% girls) and data were analyzed by means of multiple hierarchical regression analyses.Results: Most patients (91%) were well controlled by anti-epileptics; 3% had infrequent seizures and 6% were pharmacoresistant. At a multivariate level it appeared that youngsters with epilepsy who believe that they have less personal control over their illness and who feel that the illness has a high emotional impact on their lives reported higher levels of fatigue. In addition, more sleep problems were reported by youngsters who think they have less personal control over the disease, who believe that treatment controls epilepsy and report that the disease has a high emotional impact on their lives. Conclusion:Given the importance of illness perceptions, it is suggested that they are targets for future interventions that aim to reduce fatigue and sleep problems in youngsters with epilepsy.

Psychometric assessment of the Chinese version of the brief illness perception questionnaire in breast cancer survivors

“…Conceptually, the eight-item B-IPQ captures three aspects of illness perception: cognitive (5 items) and emotional (2 items) dimensions of illness representations and illness coherence (1 item). There is no consensus in the literature whether B-IPQ scores should be interpreted as eight items on three subscales (cognitive and emotional components of illness representations and illness comprehensibility) [16, 17] or as seven items with two subscales (cognitive and emotional components of representations) [18]. …”

Evaluation of a self-regulation based psycho-educational pilot intervention targeting children and adolescents with epilepsy in Greece

“…The protocol for the present intervention study was approved by the Ethical Research Committee of Pendeli's Children Hospital and is part of a larger study aiming at the creation of a brief and inexpensive psycho-educational program that could become part of the standard specialized epilepsy care. To this end, we first conducted studies that showed that illness cognitions explained important parts of the variance in psychological distress and quality of life as well as in fatigue and sleep problems in children and adolescents with epilepsy [2,3]. Based on these studies we developed the intervention, which is described below.…”

“…Initially, 400 medical records of children and adolescents at the Epilepsy Clinic were consecutively examined and reviewed for their eligibility for the study. After examination of the medical records by a neurologist, children and adolescents who fulfilled the listed inclusion criteria were approached during their prescheduled visits and the first 100 who agreed to participate were included in a larger study that is described elsewhere [2,3].…”

“…The literature suggests that interventions focusing on changing illness appraisals of young individuals as well as enhancing coping skills may be an effective treatment for pediatric psychosocial maladjustment [1][2][3][4]. This is especially true for children and adolescents with epilepsy.…”

“…Understandably, most interventions focus on seizure control rather than on the empowerment of adolescents aiming at increasing personal control over the illness and/or at the reduction of psychological distress, sleep problems or somatic complaints. Lack of control, psychological and somatic complaints result, however, frequently in a lowered quality of life [2,3,[15][16][17][18][19].…”