An Exploratory Study on Psychosocial Needs and Impacts of Pediatric Epilepsy on Caregivers

Pages: 522-526
Sanjay Kumar1, V.K. Sinha2, Mohit Kumar3, and Masood Maqbool4 ( Department of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Mental Health, Govt. Mental Hospital Amritsar, Punjab1, Department of Psychiatry, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi, Jharkhand2, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh3, and Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health And Neuro-Sciences Kashmir4)

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition in childhood that also has an impact on psychological well-being as well as on the economic burden of the patients’ families. In the current scenario, one of the important dimensions related to epilepsy care is to evaluate the impact of epilepsy on the family or caregivers. To find out the burden of care, impact of epilepsy on caregivers, behavioural problems in paediatric epilepsy and relation with the burden and quality of caregivers. Purposive sampling method was used to select 60 caregivers of children (belonging to the age group of 2-17 years) with the diagnosis of pediatric epilepsy. Childhood Psychopathology Measurement Schedule was used on the children with Pediatric epilepsy while as Burden Assessment Schedule and Impact of Pediatric epilepsy scale were used on the caregivers of the children with epilepsy. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive frequency, t-test by applying SPSS-21 version. A significant positive relationship was seen among behavioural problems in children, severity of burden, severity of epilepsy and duration of epilepsy.