How does epilepsy effect individuals lives?
Education
Medication side effects may have an impact on learning and cognition for people with epilepsy. Experiencing side effects is common, particularly in the early stages of starting a medication. (Services, 2024)
The left temporal and parietal lobes of the brain are important for reading and language development. People who experience seizures in the left part of the brain may experience challenges with language. (This is not the case for everyone and it could be the reverse for those who are left-handed.) (Services, 2024)
The ability to understand new information is critical to successful learning. Cognitive issues may be responsible for learning difficulties in people with epilepsy, which may impact negatively on their academic results and behaviour. (Services, 2024)
Driving
Epilepsy makes it complicated to get to day to day commitments such as work, school and social gatherings, appointments and more. (My Health Alberta, n.d.)
If an individuals seizures that change your awareness, consciousness, or muscle control, you may not have the legal right to drive. (My Health Alberta, n.d.)
In Canada an individual have to be seizure-free for at least 6 months to 1 year before you can get a driver's licence. (My Health Alberta, n.d.)
Employment
Seizures are unpredictable and are often dangerous as they increase the risk of injury, hospitalization and mortality which makes it diffcult to do day to day things like work and driving (Kerr, 2012)
More likely to be less careful in their work/daily activities as a result of their emotional problem. (Strzelczyk et al., 2023)
Full-time employed people with epilepsy had a muchhigher number of seizures: 76% of full-time employed people with epilepsy experienced an average of 4 seizures in the past 12 months compared to 44% of part-time employed people with epilepsy and 33% of unemployed people with epilepsy. (Strzelczyk et al., 2023)
Sleep
People with epilepsy that have seizures at night tend to have worse memory than patients with other types of epilepsy. Research with healthy individuals has shown that new information is more readily committed to memory after a night of sleep. (NewsRx Health & Science, 2015)
About half of the children had experienced night time seizures in the past 6 months, and the use of overnight pulse oximetry (a device the mesaures the saturation of blood) in a few patients revealed higher than expected pulse rates and oxygen desaturation that may be unnoticed seizure activity. (NewsRx Health & Science, 2015)
Mental health
Depression is more prevalent in people with epilepsy than in the general populationand two people with epilepsy suffer from increased levels of depression. In the current study, people with epilepsy were more likely to show depressive symptoms than others tested for this study. (Strzelczyk et al., 2023)
Seizures at times can result in stigmatization and social exclusion, with detrimental effects on an individual's confidence and self-esteem. These can result in anxiety, depression or cognitive impairment. (Strzelczyk et al., 2023)
Often feel like they accomplished less than they would have liked, because of their physical health and emotional issues. (Strzelczyk et al., 2023)
