Restrictions due to epilepsy in newly diagnosed patients: Which areas of daily life are affected and how effective is an inpatient rehabilitation program?

Objective To examine restrictions in daily life perceived by people with newly diagnosed epilepsy (NDE) before participation in a specialized inpatient rehabilitation program and to evaluate the effects of rehabilitation on these perceived restrictions. Methods We conducted an explorative study using data from two prospective studies evaluating the efficacy of the rehabilitation program. We analyzed the pre-rehabilitation assessment of the scale "Restrictions in daily life due to epilepsy" of the Performance, Socio-demographic Aspects, Subjective Evaluation (PESOS) questionnaire for patients with NDE (anti-seizure medication treatment for ≤ 1 year) and compared it with those of patients with chronic epilepsy (CE, treatment for > 5 years). Rehabilitation effects were evaluated by comparing the 1-year-follow-up assessments of patients with NDE to those of a control group with a similar epilepsy duration, but without rehabilitation (CG NDE ). Results Patients with NDE reported the strongest perceived restrictions for "Driving a car/motorcycle" (86.2 % very strongly , vs. 60.2 % in CE, p < 0.001) and "Employment, vocational training/school" (73.1 % vs. 53.1 % in CE, p = 0.067). Some characteristics of patients with NDE (e.g., sex, psychiatric comorbidity) correlated with perceived restrictions in most areas of life, while others showed more specific associations (e.g., financial restrictions with school-leaving qualification). One year after rehabilitation, patients with NDE reported significantly lower perceived restrictions across nearly all areas of life compared to the CG NDE ( p < 0.05). Conclusion The strongest perceived restrictions occurred in areas of life where even a first seizure imposes objective limitations (driving and employment). One year after rehabilitation, our data indicated a lasting effect of the rehabilitation program.