Childhood Age Epilepsy and Family

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder in childhood. It is the most widely seen chronic neurological disease in the terms of childhood and affects both the child himself and the family because of its psychological and social results. Parents of children with epilepsy, like parents of children with many other chronic conditions, are faced with a constant feeling of uncertainty about their child's condition. Although the negative effect of epilepsy on patient's psychosocial well-being has been increasingly documented in the last decade, the influence of the condition on the family has attracted much less interest. Studies indicate that epilepsy may cause high levels of psychosocial difficulties for all family members, including stigmatization, stress, psychiatric morbidity, marital problems, poor self esteem and restriction of social activities. For this reason, in case any one of the family members undergoes epilepsy, it should not be focused on just patient’s problems considering the other family members can affect this situation, preventive strategies that might protect all family members’ psychology should be developed. In this part, reviews the present state of family research, examining the influence of childhood epilepsy on the psychological and social well-being of family members.