Children and Adolescents With Epilepsy. A Clinical, Psychometric and Social Investigation Within Uppsala County, Sweden.

Abstract

Values and attitudes concerning epilepsy are even today based more on supposition than on knowledge. For example, the amount of prognostic significance given to the symptom epilepsy is remarkable even though studies on adults have shown that other symptoms on cerebral dysfunction have a bigger impact on the social adaptation than the epileptic seizure. Considering the extensive medical attention and individually adapted education that other disabled persons have received during their childhood, an investigation on how the needs of children with epilepsy are satisfied in those respects has been motivated during a long time. This need has also been pointed out in the last 10-15 years by the investigations in Sweden made on the planning of the epileptic healthcare.

This investigation aims to through clinical, psychometric and social investigations give a versatile illustration concerning the situation of those children and adolescents with epilepsy in society today. Uppsala county in Sweden was chosen as the investigation area and the 1st of November 1964 as the starting point for the inventory concerning all the individuals under the age of 21 with epilepsy.

The key points that this investigation deals with are:
1. How many under the age of 21 that have the symptom epilepsy?
2. Are children and adolescents with epilepsy receiving the adequate medical attention?
3. Are they adequately socially adapted?
4. What are the factors that negatively affect their ability to social adaptation?

Keywords: Epilepsy, Child