The role of shame in functional and epileptic seizures.

BACKGROUND

Shame, a complex social emotion, may play a clinically important role in seizure disorders. Therefore, this study examined levels of shame aversion & shame proneness and their relationship with various mental health difficulties (MHDs), and seizure frequency & severity in people with functional seizures (PWFS) and epilepsy (PWE).

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, PWFS (N = 68) and PWE (N = 70) were recruited through a neurology clinic and charities, completed online self-reported measures of shame proneness & aversion, seizure frequency & severity, depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and perceived socioeconomic status (PSS). Data analyses involved t-tests, correlations, and moderated regression analyses.

RESULTS

Both PWFS and PWE showed high and equivalent levels of shame aversion & proneness; mean levels of these measures were more than a standard deviation higher in PWFS and PWE, than in non-clinical populations of previous studies. Both groups had clinically high levels of depression and somatic symptoms, but not anxiety, with PWFS having significantly higher levels than PWE. Shame aversion predicted anxiety and depression in both groups, even after controlling for PSS, age, and gender. Interestingly, PSS, a demographic control variable, significantly predicted depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and seizure frequency in both groups.

CONCLUSION

We observed high levels of shame and MHDs in PWFS and PWE. Shame aversion predicted anxiety and depression in both groups, even after controlling for demographic variables. Our findings underline the significant role of shame in people with seizures, despite the differences between PWFS and PWE being smaller than expected.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.