Frequency of Worry and Anxiety in Epileptic Children's Mothers

Adverse effect of children's epilepsy on family members, especially mothers, is an issue that has been less considered. One of these effects is anxiety increase in mothers. This study has been done with the purpose of determining frequency of worry and anxiety in epileptic children's mothers and recognizing the factors affecting it. This descriptive cross-sectional study has been done with the participation of epileptic children's mothers referred to Mofid Neurology Clinic of Medical Training and Therapy Center of Children. Anxiety level was determined by the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) standard questionnaire. The data was analyzed using t-test, Mann-Whitney test and one-way ANOVA and in all cases, p<0.05 considered as significant. In this study, 206 mothers were surveyed. The mean anxiety scores of mothers was 45±9.5. 84 subjects (40.7%) had mild anxiety, 71 (34.5%) had moderate anxiety and 51 (24.8%) had severe anxiety. Anxiety of mothers was significantly higher in cases such as education of child in special school (p=0.018), the high number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) consumed for controlling epilepsy (p=0.011), worry of death (p<0.001), permanent brain damage (p=0.036), drug side effects (p<0.01) and paralysis of child (p=0.030). Mothers who had been previously trained about epilepsy in center, had lower anxiety (p<0.001).‍ This study showed that the majority of epileptic children's mothers had moderate and severe anxiety. This phenomenon will be higher in cases like child’s education in special school, multi medication therapy and worries of side effects of epilepsy and will be lower by increasing mothers’ awareness.