Health-related quality of life (HRQOL), activity of daily living (ADL) anddepressive mood disorder in temporal lobe epilepsy patients

We, determined the interrelations of chronological age, age at seizure onse t, duration of seizure disorder, cognitive functioning (IQ), scales of acti vities of daily Living, depressive mood disorder and measures of health-rel ated quality of life (HRQOL). Furthermore, we investigated the association of the laterality of seizure onset zone and absence/presence of hippocampal atrophy and/or sclerosis (HA/HS) with measures of HRQOL, activities of dai ly living (ADL) and depressive mood disorder. In the setting of pre-surgica l epilepsy evaluation, a sample of 56 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) was studied using the Bonner Skalen fur Epilepsie (BPSE) and the depr ession inventory D-S of von Zerssen. Patients reported high levels of depen dency on others and poor coping capabilities. Our data also showed specific ADL-behaviour suggesting social withdrawal and isolation. Our results indi cate emotional impairment as a major problem in TLE, because 45% of our pat ients scored in the depressive range of the D-S depression scale. Depressio n score was found to be a powerful predictor of self-reported quality of li fe after adjusting for seizure-related variables, demographic variables and cognitive functioning (IQ). The only scale showing a significant lateralit y effect was ADL-home. No relationship between the dependent measures of HR QOL, ADL-social, ADL-cultural, depressive mood disorder and laterality of t he epileptogenic zone or absence/presence of HA/HS was found. HRQOL and dep ressive mood disorder are strongly interrelated indicating that patients wi th depressive symptoms report lower quality of life and specific patterns o f ADL. HRQOL, ADL and depressive mood disorder are largely independent of b iological markers such as laterality of seizure onset zone and absence/pres ence of HA/HS in TLE.