Relationship between perceived stigma and self-esteem in epilepsy patients

This study was conducted as a descriptive study to investigate the relationship between perceived stigma and self-esteem in epilepsy patients. The sample of the study consisted of 115 epilepsy patients (66 females, 49 males) who were followed up in the outpatient department of the Neurology Department of Düzce University. The data of the study was collected by Sociodemographic Data Form, Stigma in Epilepsy Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The data of the study were evaluated by using SPSS 22.0 software, percentage, independent two sample t test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Spearman correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskall-Wallis H test. The majority of the patients were female, married, high school graduates and employees, perceived themselves at low socioeconomic level, and the mean age was ± 31.8 years, mean disease duration was ± 13.8 years; It was found that the most common difficulties experienced by the patients were personal security problems. Patients who did not work and had seizures 1-2 times a week had higher epilepsy stigma scores and increased stigma scores as age increased and disease duration increased. It was found that 47% of the patients were exposed to moderate stigma and 29.6% did not experience stigma. According to these results, a significant proportion of epilepsy-related stigma was detected; There was a negative correlation between stigma and self-esteem. Stigma in epilepsy patients causes psychosocial problems such as social isolation, loss of employment, fear of marriage, deterioration in familial and social relations and this leads to negative self-esteem. The investigation of stigma in epilepsy is important to eliminate the psychosocial problems in patients and to facilitate compliance with treatment.