الفهرس 
Introduction
Definitions related to epilepsyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Living with epilepsy requires a complex approaches to many aspects of this episodic, chronic disorder. The medical science works to add years to life, while human nature wants to add life to years. Stigma is highly associated with incomplete seizure control and poor psychosocial outcomes for people with epilepsy (e.g., depression, anxiety, social isolation). People with epilepsy have reported that stigma is one of their most significant challenges Aspects that are suggested to have impacts on stigma of epilepsy include: seizure related aspects as seizure type, frequency, duration of illness, type and number of medications and EEG changes, and individual related aspects as age, sex, residence, occupational status, marital status, educational level, age at onset, type of personality, level of anxiety and depression, level of self-esteem and the affection of the QOL.
This study aimed at studying the stigma of epilepsy and the factors that affect its level. It was conducted over 102 adult Egyptian epileptic patients using the stigma scale of epilepsy, estimation of self-esteem through Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg M, 1965), Arabic version by (Abd-Elrageeb AE., 1995), assessment of Depressive symptoms through Beck Depression Inventory II-Short Form. (Beck, 1965), Arabic version by (Ghareeb A., 1999), assessment of Anxiety symptoms through Hamilton Anxiety Scale (Max Hamilton, 1959), Arabic version by (Lotfy F.1994), assessment of quality of life through QOL-36 questionnaire, short form. (Ware JE Jr, 1992), Arabic version by (Abdulmohsen SA, 1997), assessment of personality through Eysenck Personality Inventory. (Eysenck HJ, 1975), Arabic version by (Abd-Elkhalek A., 1997), and 50 control healthy persons for comparison of the findings. We found that:
65.7% of patients were stigmatized of variable degree (mild, moderate and severe), and 34.3% were non-stigmatized at all.
Epileptic patients are disinclined in marriage, and the marital state did not have a significant effect of the level of stigma of epilepsy, and as regard the other demographic variables the study revealed non-significant relation between stigma and age, gender, residence, occupational state and the level of education, while the clinical variables showed non-significant relation as regard duration of illness and type of seizures, while the age at onset showed significant negative correlation with stigma(p value=.007), whereas the frequency of seizures found to be significant positively correlated with the stigma(p value=.004), as regard number of drug therapy significant positive correlation had been found with the level of stigma (p value=.031).
Regarding the type of drug therapy, non- significant correlation had been found between stigma and all types of the common drugs used.
Depression and anxiety levels were significant positively correlated with stigma (p value=.000 for both), while in correlation to stigma, the level of self-esteem of our patients was significant negatively correlated to stigma, (p=.000).
As regard the personality changes with epilepsy, in comparison to control group, our patients revealed significant higher scores in neuroticism dimension (p=.009) and significant lower scores in extroversion-introversion dimension (p=.000) of EPI. As regard the correlation between EPI and stigma, our results revealed that the Psychoticism and the Neuroticism dimensions were significant positively correlated with stigma (p=.010, .000 respectively). On the other hand stigma was negatively correlated with the Lie dimension of EPI.
The affection of the QOL with epilepsy and its effects on stigma was also significant, in comparison to the control group, our patients revealed significant lower scores in all dimension of the QOL-36 questionnaire-SF (p=.000). As regard the correlation between the QOL-36 questionnaire-SF and the presence of stigma, our results revealed that all the dimensions of the QOL-36 questionnaire-SF were significant negatively correlated with the stigma (p=.000).
from this study we can conclude that there are some factors that could affect the stigma of epilepsy:
I-Inevitable factors:
1- Early age at onset of illness.
2- Having right frontal lobe activity on EEG.
II-Correctable factors:
1- High frequency of seizures.
2- Polytherapy.
3- Low self-esteem.
4- High degree of depression and anxiety.