SOCIAL AND WORK ADJUSTMENT IN PATIENTS WITH EPILEPSY
MARGARET A. LENNOX M. D.1, and
JENNIE MOHR PH. D.1
1 The Department of Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene, Yale University School of Medicine.
1. Twenty-two unselected male clinic epileptic patients, ages 20-52, were studied with reference to social, work, school, and marital adjustment. The interrelationships between adjustability and medical and psychological factors are presented.
2. In these patients medical handicap is greatest when seizures start before the age of 19, are frequent, are of the psychomotor variety, and respond poorly to treatment.
3. Work adjustment is better for patients whose medical handicap is marked. Social and school adjustment is better when the medical handicap is slight. Work and social adjustment is facilitated when the patients are able to accept their illness and to behave independently.
4. Eight of the 22 patients are married, and two marriages have ended in divorce.
5. Fewer families than patients are able to accept the illness, but almost all patients from accepting families are able to accept epilepsy realistically.
Acknowledgment: We wish to acknowledge the assistance of Miss Irmgaard Rosensweig, who tabulated the data.
