Rehabilitation in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy: A controlled, 1-year follow-up study on a specialized inpatient rehabilitation program

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a specialized inpatient rehabilitation program in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy (NDE), who had been referred within 1 year after diagnosis. Methods: We performed an open, prospective, controlled study comparing a 1-year follow-up assessment of patients with NDE after completing a rehabilitation program at an epilepsy center (rehabilitation group) with a control group of patients with similar epilepsy duration, but without rehabilitation in the first year after diagnosis. Primary outcome measures comprised emotional adaptation to epilepsy, depression and anxiety; and secondary outcome measures were overall quality of life (QoL), overall health, perceived restrictions because of epilepsy, level of information about epilepsy, and employment status. Results: Comparison of the admission data of 74 rehabilitation group patients (mean age and SD 47.7 ± 13.0 years) with the pre-rehabilitation assessment of 56 control patients (45.5 ± 12.1 years) revealed no significant differences concerning sociodemographic and health data. Comparison of the follow-up assessment of the rehabilitation group and the pre-rehabilitation assessment of the control group showed significantly better values for the rehabilitation group on emotional adaptation to epilepsy (p =.003), overall QoL (p =.006) and overall health (p =.011), perceived restrictions because of epilepsy, and subjective level of information about epilepsy (both p's.50). One year after rehabilitation, patients in the rehabilitation group were more often seizure-free and less often on sickness absence than control group patients (both p's