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Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy (MT) and social support (SS) in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.
Methods: We performed an assessor-blinded randomized control trial. Sixty patients with drug-resistant epilepsy were randomly allocated to MT or SS (30 per group). Each group received 4 biweekly intervention sessions. The primary outcome was the change in the total score of the Patient-Weighted Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31-P). Secondary outcomes included seizure frequency, mood symptoms, and neurocognitive functions. The assessors were blinded to the patient's intervention grouping. Results were analyzed using general linear model with repeated measure.
Results: Following intervention, both the MT (n = 30) and SS (n = 30) groups had an improved total QOLIE-31-P, with an improvement of +6.23 for MT (95% confidence interval [CI] +4.22 to +10.40) and +3.30 for SS (95% CI +1.03 to +5.58). Significantly more patients in the MT group had a clinically important improvement in QOLIE-31-P (+11.8 or above) compared to those who received SS (11 patients vs 4 patients). Significantly greater reduction in depressive and anxiety symptoms, seizure frequency, and improvement in delayed memory was observed in the MT group compared with the SS group.
Conclusions: We found benefits of short-term psychotherapy on patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Mindfulness therapy was associated with greater benefits than SS alone in quality of life, mood, seizure frequency, and verbal memory.
Classification of evidence: This study provides Class II evidence that mindfulness-based therapy significantly improves quality of life in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.
GLOSSARY
- AED=
- antiepileptic drug;
- BAI=
- Beck Anxiety Inventory;
- BDI-II=
- Beck Depression Inventory–II;
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- hp2=
- partial η2;
- MT=
- mindfulness therapy plus social support;
- PWE=
- people with epilepsy;
- QOL=
- quality of life;
- QOLIE-31-P=
- Patient-Weighted Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory;
- RCT=
- randomized controlled trial;
- SS=
- social support
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Supplemental data at Neurology.org
Editorial, page 1094
- Received October 21, 2014.
- Accepted in final form April 23, 2015.
- © 2015 American Academy of Neurology
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