Investigation of psychoeducation effectiveness given to families having children with epilepsy

This research was carried out quasi-experimentally for families of children with epilepsy to assess the impact of psychoeducation to parents' knowledge, anxiety for epilepsy and State-Trait Anxiety levels. The population of the investigation covers, 560 parents of children with epilepsy followed by Abant Izzet Baysal University Health Research Center of Child Neurology. The study sample constituted 68 participants including 35 test and 33 control parents. Research data, the form determines the parent and child descriptive characteristics, Epilepsy Information Scale for Parents (EISP), parental concerns against the seizure Scale (PCASS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), collected by applying as a parent to pretest and posttest. The experimental group psychoeducation applied 2 hours per week for 6 weeks, the control group did not receive any intervention. In the dependent group to analyze the data, t-test and student test was used. As a result, the experimental group parents pretest Epilepsy Information Scale for Parents (EISP) score X=12.4±2.44, while the final test EISP score X=17.5±1.96, respectively. Experimental group of parents EISP points has increased after psychoeducation. EISP points between experimental and control groups of parents were found to be statistically highly significant.(t=9.441 p<0.01). There were no changes in the control group (p>0.05). Experimental and control groups, there was no statistically significant difference in trait anxiety scores (p>0.05); in the experimental group of parents Trait Anxiety Inventory (TAI) at X=40.9±6.10 while pretest scores, It decreased markedly after psychoeducation X=38.8±4.94 and this difference was found to be statistically significant (t=2.029 p<0.05). Experimental and control groups of parents, there was no significant difference in trait anxiety scores (p>0.05). In line with these results, it is proposed to apply psychoeducational program to parents with epilepsy children by nurses. Key Words: Anxiety, Epilepsy, Nursing, Psychoeducation.