The effect of emotion regulation intervention on quality of life, cognitive emotion regulation, and seizures in patients with nonepileptic seizures

Abstract

Background: Nonepileptic seizures are of serious neurological disorders associated with a combination of neurological symptoms and psychological conflict. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of emotion regulation on quality of life, cognitive emotion regulation, and frequency of seizures in patients with nonepileptic seizures in Isfahan City, Iran. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, post-test and follow-up stages. Among patients admitted to Noor and Ayatollah Kashani Hospitals, 16 patients with nonepileptic seizures were selected and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control (n = 8). Twelve 90-minute sessions of emotion regulation group therapy intervention was implemented for the experimental group. Quality of life questionnaire from World Health Organization, cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire designed by Garnefeski, and demographic questionnaire designed by the researcher were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using repeated measure analysis via SPSS software. Findings: Regulation of emotion intervention showed a significant difference in aspects of quality of life, cognitive emotion regulation, and number of seizures between the 2 groups. In addition, changes were persistent in one-month follow-up period (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Emotion regulation intervention improved the quality of life, increased use of positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and reduced negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies and the frequency of seizures in patients with nonepileptic seizures Isfahan City. © 2017, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.