Structural Model of Somatic Symptoms based on Perceived Social Support and Childhood Trauma in Patients with Epilepsy: Mediating Role of Depression, Anxiety and Stress

Considering the importance of examining somatic symptoms in patients with epilepsy, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the structural model of somatic symptoms based on perceived social support and childhood trauma with the mediating of depression, anxiety and stress in patients with epilepsy.

This study in terms of purpose was applied and in terms of implementation method was descriptive from type of correlation. The research population was the patients with epilepsy of Iran in the 2021 year, which number of 260 people of them were selected as a sample by simple random sampling method. The research tools were included somatic symptoms questionnaire (Kroenke et al., 2002), perceived social support scale (Zimet et al., 1988), childhood trauma questionnaire (Bernstein et al., 2003) and depression, anxiety and stress scale (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995). Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling in SPSS-24 and AMOS-26 software.

The findings showed that the model of somatic symptoms based on perceived social support and childhood trauma with the mediating of depression, anxiety and stress in patients with epilepsy had a good fit. Also, social support had a significant negative effect on depression, anxiety and stress and somatic symptoms, childhood trauma had a significant positive effect on depression, anxiety and stress, and depression, anxiety and stress had a significant positive effect on somatic symptoms (P<0.05), but trauma childhood had no significant effect on somatic symptoms (P>0.05). In addition, social support with the mediating of depression, anxiety and stress had a significant negative effect on somatic symptoms and childhood trauma with the mediation of depression, anxiety and stress had a significant positive effect on somatic symptoms (P<0.05).

According to the results of this study, it is necessary to plan to reduce somatic symptoms in patients with epilepsy by increasing social support and reducing depression, anxiety and stress.