17/05/2024
Partners Of People With Epilepsy ‘May Be At Risk Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)’
A study has highlighted the potentially stressful nature of living with a person who has epilepsy.
Many people who act as unpaid carers experience stress and anxiety, with some even meeting the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to previous research.
Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark carried out a study involving 614 people in order to examine whether living with a person with epilepsy in particular could be traumatic for those fulfilling a caring role.
Participants completed questionnaires so that the researchers could assess their levels of stress and determine whether they had symptoms of PTSD, an anxiety disorder caused by stressful, frightening or distressing events.
Information was also recorded on a range of demographic variables in order to shed light on any predictive risk factors for PTSD.
Publishing their findings in the journal Epilepsy and Behaviour, the study authors revealed that 7.7 per cent of people who shared a home with someone with epilepsy fulfilled the criteria for PTSD.
A further 43.9 per cent of participants had sub-clinical levels of PTSD, meaning they had symptoms associated with the disorder, but not to the extent where they would be diagnosed with it.
The researchers also observed that 9.3 per cent of respondents had clinical or sub-clinical levels of anxiety.
Ditte Norup and Ask Elklit, from the Danish National Centre for Psychotraumatology at the University of Southern Denmark, concluded that people “were at risk of PTSD when living with a patient with epilepsy”. They also revealed a number of factors that appeared to be associated with an increased risk of PTSD among partners, including the frequency and types of seizure medication that the patient was on and their experience of side-effects.
Other risk factors included the severity of a person’s epilepsy and any symptoms of anxiety or depression.
In contrast, people who received plenty of social support to look after their partners tended to be less likely to experience traumatic stress.
