Sanger M S, Perrin E C, Sandler H M
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1993 Apr;14(2):88-93.
Despite the prevalence of seizure disorders in children, little is known about how youngsters with epilepsy understand the cause of their disorder. Fifty children and adolescents with idiopathic seizure disorders, between 5- and 16-years-old, were questioned about the etiology of seizure episodes and of seizure disorders, as well as their understanding of physical causality, general illness causality, and brain functioning. Responses were scored for their conceptual complexity according to scales paralleling Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Older children had more cognitively sophisticated concepts of epilepsy than did younger children. Overall, however, children scored significantly lower on questions about their seizure disorders than on questions assessing their understanding of physical causality, general illness causality, and brain functioning. Many children had misconceptions about seizure disorders and lacked disease-related information; only 41% of the children identified epilepsy as a disease involving the brain. These findings underline the need for including educational intervention in the comprehensive care of pediatric seizure disorders.
尽管癫痫症在儿童中普遍存在，但对于患有癫痫的青少年如何理解其病症的病因却知之甚少。五十名年龄在5至16岁之间患有特发性癫痫症的儿童和青少年，被问及癫痫发作事件和癫痫症的病因，以及他们对身体因果关系、一般疾病因果关系和大脑功能的理解。根据与皮亚杰认知发展阶段平行的量表，对回答的概念复杂性进行评分。年龄较大的儿童对癫痫症的认知概念比年龄较小的儿童更为复杂。然而，总体而言，儿童在关于癫痫症的问题上的得分明显低于在评估他们对身体因果关系、一般疾病因果关系和大脑功能理解的问题上的得分。许多儿童对癫痫症存在误解且缺乏与疾病相关的信息；只有41%的儿童将癫痫症认定为一种涉及大脑的疾病。这些发现强调了在儿科癫痫症的综合护理中纳入教育干预的必要性。
