Abstract

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of personality traits of epilepsy patients on their quality of life.
Methods: A total of 76 epilepsy patients and 78 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18-65 were matched according to age and gender for the study. The patients were administered the following forms; sociodemographic and clinic data form, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36).
Results: The BDI scores and the BAI scores were significantly higher for the epilepsy group compared to the control group. Between the epilepsy group and the control group; the EPQ neuroticism and lie subscale scores were significantly higher in the epilepsy group. According to the SF-36 scores; physical functioning, physical role functioning, social role functioning, emotional role functioning, mental health and pain scores were significantly lower in the epilepsy group. It was discovered that there is a significant relationship between BDI and BAI scores and quality of life and personality inventory scores.
Conclusion: It was found that the epilepsy patients had a lower quality of life compared with the control group, which was found to be worsened with comorbid conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Furthermore, high neuroticism scores were proven to have negatively affected epilepsy patient’s quality of life, while increases in the frequency of epileptic seizures negatively affects social functioning. The increase in disease duration also adversely affects the perception of general health and mental health.

Key words: epilepsy, personality, anxiety, depression, quality of life