Abstracts

RATIONALE: Idiopathic generalized epilepsy syndromes are not typically associated with cognitive impairment or lesions and are considered easily treatable with appropriate medication. The quality of life of these patients should be better than that of patients with partial epilepsy syndromes. METHODS: From an epilepsy database, we identified 22 adult and late adolescent patients with EEG revealing ?3Hz generalized spike and wave or polyspike and wave complexes and histories suggestive of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. 9 were completely seizure free and 13 had at least 2 seizures per year. Patients completed a self-perception of quality of life survey, either in person, or by phone. The instrument used was the Quality of Life In Epilepsy (QOLIE) -31 inventory, a 31 item questionnaire containing 7 multi-item scales that tap the following health concepts: seizure worry, overall quality of life, emotional well-being, energy and fatigue levels, cognitive functioning, medication effects, and social functioning. The test scores of the 22 patients were converted to T-scores, derived from the QOLIE-31 control cohort of 304 adult patients with heterogeneous epilepsy syndromes including simple partial, complex partial, grand mal, absence, and/or myoclonic seizures. RESULTS: The mean total QOLIE-31 T-score of our patients was 47. The respective QOLIE-31 subscale mean T-scores were as follows: seizure worry 50, overall quality of life 46, emotional well being 47, energy/ fatigue 48, cognitive function 51, medication effects 47, social function 46. Seizure free patients had higher mean T-scores than those with persistent seizures (61 ? 11 vs. 37 ? 12)(p< 0.0001 two-tailed t-test). CONCLUSIONS: The QOLIE-31 scores in these 22 cases with idiopathic generalized epilepsy are similar to the QOLIE-31 scores of a large group of control patients with heterogeneous epilepsy syndromes suggesting that the perceived quality of life in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy is no better than that of patients with other epilepsy syndromes. In patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, good seizure control is significantly related to a perception of better quality of life.