Abstract:

Epilepsy is a common neurological disease, which affects people of all ages. Patients often have deficits regarding their knowledge of epilepsy. Many of them have recurrent seizures, psychosocial, and emotional problems and report restrictions in daily living as a result of their epilepsy. Meanwhile, a variety of psycho educational programs have been developed with the intention to improve knowledge, coping with epilepsy, quality of life, compliance, and health status. These educational programs vary considerably in regard to content, didactic approach, and objectives. Overall, from the small number of evaluated programs it is evident that educational programs can improve epilepsy-related knowledge, improve the management of seizures, and reduce misinformation and misconceptions about epilepsy. They can support adults, adolescents, and children with epilepsy and their families and enable them to cope with the disease they can sometimes also reduce seizure frequency and improve compliance with antiepileptic drugs. The effects on emotional disorders (e.g. depression) and quality of life are less obvious. 

Keywords: