Abstracts

Rationale: Family mastery and parental characteristics play a moderating role in the development of psychological problems in children with epilepsy. A relationship between parental psychopathology and disability in children with somatoform disorders has been reported. In children with NEE, family stressors are common, but no data are available on psychological and medical profiles of their parents. The goal of this pilot study was to compare demographic, psychological, and medical profiles of parents of children with NEE with parents of children with epilepsy. Methods: A multi-site cross-sectional study recruited children and their parents from video EEG monitoring units at five US tertiary epilepsy centers. Parental psychopathology and perception of health were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and SF-36 Health Survey (Version 1). Results: Forty eight children were recruited, 24 with epilepsy (mean age 13.6 years, SD=3.0; 13 female, 11 male) and 24 with NEE (mean age 14.0 years, SD=3.0; 14 female, 10 male). The 52 caregivers (26 in each NEE and epilepsy groups) had a mean age of 43.8 (SD=8.14), 76.9% were the children's biological mothers, 69.2% were Caucasian, 11.6% African-American, 9.6% Latino, and 9.6% had other ethnic background. A greater proportion of the caregivers were female in the NEE group (95.8%) compared to the seizure group (62.5%; χ2(1) = 8.68, p = .01). There were no other significant demographic differences between the parents in NEE and epilepsy groups. The BSI was available for 22 NEE and 17 epilepsy parents, and other parent psychopathology measures for 7 NEE and 6 epilepsy parents. The BSI yielded a significantly higher (t (37) = 2.64, p = .01) Somatization sub-score for the NEE compared to the epilepsy parents. The BDI total was significantly higher (p = .03) in the NEE compared to the epilepsy parents. There was also a trend for a higher BAI total (p=.09) and more daily functional disability on the SF-36 (p=.07) with more Role Limitations due to Emotional Problems in the NEE compared to the epilepsy parents. In the medical history, 53.9% mothers of NEE subjects have had pain or neurological problems compared to 16.0% of the epilepsy mothers (p = 0.01); 46.2% fathers of NEE subjects have also had medical problems compared to 19.2% of seizure fathers (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Although the sample is small, these preliminary results suggest that parents of NEE children compared to parents of children with epilepsy appear to report more somatization, depression, anxiety, and functional impairment, as well as medical and neurological problems. Replication of these findings on a larger sample is needed to determine if these findings support a family model of psychopathology, especially somatization and disability in the parents of children with NEE.