Abstracts

Rationale: (1) To determine the prevalence of depression and sleep disruption in mothers of children with intractable epilepsy and (2) assess which family factors and neurological/behavioral characteristics of the child with epilepsy correlate with maternal depression. Methods: Mothers of children aged 2-18 years with intractable epilepsy completed a Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Pittsburgh Sleep questionnaire for themselves and a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), ADHD-Rating Scale (ADHD-RS), and Scale of Independent Behavior-Revised for their child. Medical charts were reviewed for age at seizure onset, seizure frequency and type, number of failed treatments and presence of autism. Mothers were queried regarding family type, educational level, income, number of children in the home. Results: Fifty two of 80 (65%) eligible mothers returned completed questionnaires. Maternal depression was common - 45% had elevated BDI-II scores, with 25% in the moderate/severely depressed range. Sleep disruption was reported in 67%. Maternal depression correlated strongly with high ADHD-RS and Total Problems scores on the CBCL, but not to most epilepsy-related variables, autism, severe adaptive delay or family income. Conclusions: Maternal depression is common with intractable childhood epilepsy and correlates strongly with behavior problems in the child, but not with epilepsy-related factors.