Hitit University Epilepsy Outpatient Clinic Experience

Objective:Although epilepsy can be controlled with treatment; misperceptions are a disease that negatively affects life due to the lack of knowledge about the disease, even in individuals with epilepsy.Methods:Individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 years with epilepsy who applied to the epilepsy outpatient clinic were included in the study using a random sampling method. All participants were evaluated by the same neurologist and psychiatric specialist.Results:The mean age of 34 individuals with epilepsy was 30.0±10.4 years, the duration of the disease was 132.9±101.2 months, and the age of onset of the disease was 18.7±12.1 years. Of the patients, 40% were males and 60% were females. Of the cases, 93.9% had generalized seizures and 6.1% had focal seizures. Of the participants, 47.1% were under treatment with monotherapy and the others with polytherapy. The rate of patients without drug side effects was 57.1%. The rate of regular use of the drug was 85.7%. The median Epilepsy Disease Concealment Scale scores of the participants were 33.5, the median Epilepsy Stigma Scale scores were 65.0, and the median Quality of Life Scale in Patients with Epilepsy scores were 60.7. The median scores of Hamilton anxiety and depression were calculated as 3.0 and 5.0, respectively.Conclusion:Although the patient population was limited, many findings in our study were consistent with the literature. Our study will shed light on future epidemiological data of Turkey and Çorum.