COMPARING THE THEORY OF MIND AMONG TONIC-CLONIC EPILEPSY, JUVENILE MYOCLONIC EPILEPSY AND HEALTHY PEOPLE

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain occurring in the form of loss of consciousness, abnormal movements, and emotional disturbances. This disorder may be recurrent and have lifelong durability that requires regular and natural cares. In order to help the sick, the present study compared the theory of mind among tonic-clonic epilepsy, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and healthy people. This causal-comparative study was conducted on 134 individuals (60 healthy people and 74 patients with epilepsy) who referred to health centers of Urmia city. Baron Cohen’s Reading Mind from Eyes Test (RMET) was used as a study tool. T-tests for independent samples and ANOVA and Scheffe post hoc test were used. Accordingly, the theory of mind in epileptic patients and healthy subjects has a significant difference, and this defect in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy is more than tonic-clonic epileptic patients and normal subjects. The deficit of theory of mind in epileptic patients is affected by same neurological base, drugs and the clinical characteristics, and personality and status of patients. Thus, the evaluation of this theory can explain some of the behavioral and psychological problems for planning effective non-pharmacologic therapy.