Motivational Interviewing in Adolescents With Epilepsy

Overview

Epilepsy is the most common serious neurodevelopmental disorder of childhood characterized by recurrent seizures, affecting approximately 0.9% of children and adolescents worldwide. Although epileptic seizures are an important element of epilepsy in children, there are many neurological, mental health and cognitive comorbidities in childhood epilepsy that increase the burden of the disease and cause a decrease in quality of life. Motivational interviewing has been found to have a positive effect on the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases; It is a patient-centered counseling that explores, strengthens, and directs the individual's motivation for change.

Adolescence period; It is an important stage of development in which the self-concept develops, self-related schemas are created and carried into adulthood. During this formative period of life; Adolescents experience increasing levels of uncertainty and self-consciousness as they progress through the task of identity formation. It is greatly influenced by social interactions, especially interactions with peers.Children and adolescents with epilepsy are at increased risk for social problems, reduced social competence, poor social skills, and deficits in social communication compared to healthy children. Compared to youth with other chronic diseases, youth with epilepsy have higher rates of comorbid neurological disorders, academic failure, poor social skills, stigma, poor quality of life, and behavioral health problems (e.g., anxiety, depression). They often experience low quality of life because they feel unsafe and fear having a seizure in public. In a study aiming to investigate the factors affecting the level of social anxiety in epilepsy, it was concluded that social anxiety is independently associated with low quality of life. In a meta-analysis study; It was concluded that the motivational interviewing method applied by nurses increased the quality of life of individuals with chronic diseases. When the literature was examined, no study was found that addressed the motivational interviewing technique applied to the social anxiety and quality of life of adolescents with epilepsy. Motivational Interviewing Technique applied to adolescents with epilepsy; It is thought that it will be effective in reducing social anxiety and increasing the quality of life by enabling adolescents to become aware of their situation, get rid of the ambivalent (opposite emotional state) they experience, and take action to change.