Anxiety symptoms ten years after diagnosis of childhood-onset epilepsy: Prevalence and Correlates
Abstract
This study described anxiety symptoms in AYA 10 years after epilepsy diagnosis and assessed the association between family characteristics and long-term anxiety symptoms controlling for parent, clinical and child demographic characteristics. Data were from a multi-centre prospective study of children with new-onset epilepsy. Ten years after diagnosis, 33% scored above the cut-off for clinically significant anxiety symptoms. The mean anxiety z-score was similar to that previously reported in the US population of the same age and sex. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that family characteristics at the 10-year follow-up and at diagnosis were not independently associated with long-term anxiety symptoms. Five-year seizure freedom was independently associated with long-term anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that the long-term outcome for childhood-onset epilepsy in terms of anxiety symptoms is similar to normative population data and there is a subset of AYA experiencing anxiety symptoms that are worthy of attention.