Case Report of Complementary Therapy for Achieving Happiness of a Child with Absence Epilepsy

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in childhood. The research shows that children with epilepsy are more exposed to childhood disorders than healthy children. One of these disorders is anxiety. Anxiety is a common comorbidity in epilepsy. Therefore an epileptic child needs psychological complementary therapy in addition to medication. This complementary therapy is not a substitute for medical treatment but can be associated with medical treatment. The aim of this case report, with Kids’ Skills approach, is to illustrate the process of this complementary therapy for achieving happiness of a child with absence epilepsy.Methods: This case report on a primary school girl, uses the psychological approach of Kids’ Skills founded by Ben Forman, psychiatrist and director of the Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute. Kids’ Skills sets a plan for children to overcome their behavioral and emotional problems by learning skills with the support of their parents and teachers. The systematic steps of this approach start by agreeing with the child on the skill and end with a happy celebration and planning for teaching the skill to another child. In this report, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™ 4.0) is used to assess the epileptic child’s quality of life. Case Report: Melika is seven years old and a first grade student. This Melika’s teacher refers her to the school psychologist because of daydreaming and inattention in the classroom. Parents’ interview and psychological tests indicate that Melika has a normal IQ, no learning disability and no attention deficit disorder. Because the child’s daydreaming occurs frequently, with staring and interruptions of consciousness, she is referred to a child neurologist for diagnosis. Neurological tests show that Melika has absence epilepsy and needs medication to control her seizures. Starting medication, Melika and her parents come to the Kids’ Skills and Health Room in order to prevention of the behavioral and emotional problems. The results of the Quality of Life Inventory, completed by the school health teacher in collaboration with Melika’s parents, are reviewed to explore the child’s required skills. The results indicate that Melika’s emotional functioning is not satisfactory because Melika feels sad and worry about what will happen to her. Available evidence suggests that she is a subject to generalized anxiety. For this reason, it is agreed with Melika on the two skills for achieving happiness: cooperating with classmates and keeping happy memories diary. After displaying the model and role-playing in the Kids’ Skills and Health Room, the class teacher and the health teacher be invited as the child’s supporters and a training plan is set for Melika to practice the skills under supervision on her supporters.Conclusion: The primary goal of treating a child with absence epilepsy, which is realized through the diagnosis and supervision of a child neurologist, as well as the support and care of parents and educators, is to prevent silence seizures attacks and reduce the potential risks that the child may have due to loss of consciousness. In addition to medical treatment and care, for the prevention of generalized anxiety and improvement of the epileptic child’s quality of life as the secondary goal, supplementary therapy can be initiated for achieving happiness. This supplementary therapy should be down at the discretion of child neurologist. According to psychological research, one of the most important predictor variables of children’s happiness is their cooperative relationship with peers.

کلیدواژه ها:

absence epilepsy ، anxiety ، complementary therapy ، happiness ، Kids’ Skills.