Abstracts

Rationale: Depression and anxiety is more strongly associated with quality of life (QOL) than seizure frequency in several populations. However, QOL is culturally determined and may be influenced by cultural values and norms as well as local policies and resources. The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of neuropsychiatric symptoms and seizure severity on QOL in people with epilepsy living in Jordan.Methods: A questionnaire assessing seizure severity and complications as well as the SF-36, has been validated in Arabs with epilepsy. The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was translated and back translated and piloted in this sample. Data were collected from 45 adult patients with epilepsy. SF36 score was factored into a mental health component and physical health component based on published factoring algorithm. Multivariate regression analysis was used to evaluate the impact of seizure severity and neuropsychiatric symptoms on quality of life in Jordanians with epilepsy. The mental health component of SF-36 (MH-SF36) T score and physical health components of SF-36 (PH-SF36) T score served as the dependent variables in the regression model. Results: Demographic and clinical characteristics of 45 subjects are described in Table 1 and Table 2. Total NPI score (p<.0001, R2=0.31), seizure frequency (P=0.02, R2=0.14) and history of injury due to seizure (P=0.05, R2=0.23) are significantly associated with MH SF-36. One unit increase in total NPI score corresponds to 0.6 unit decrease in SF36 mental T-score. NPI, seizure frequency and injury is not significantly related to PH-SF36. Conclusions: -Similar to other populations, neuropsychiatric symptoms was significantly associated with psychiatric symptoms in Jordanians with epilepsy. -In Jordanians, serious injury from seizures is associated with poor QOL scores, specifically mental health QOL scores. -In Jordanians, seizure frequency is associated with worse QOL.