Abstract
Purpose: In epilepsy patients, fatigue and sleep are among the important
problems and they negatively affect the patient’s quality of life. The
purpose of the present study is to examine epilepsy patients’ fatigue
and quality of sleep. Method: The sample of this descriptive
cross-sectional study consisted of 166 epilepsy patients undergoing
outpatient treatment at a University Hospital Neurology Outpatient
Clinic. In the study, Patient Information Form (PIF), Fatigue Severity
Scale (FSS) and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used in data
collection. Data analysis was performed in SPSS 22.0 package program.
Results: It was determined that the mean FSS in epilepsy patients was
4.44±1.72. The mean PSQI was found to be 13.05±4.35. While the
relationship of patients’ mean FSS scores with gender, and with the
frequency of seizures in the recent year was found significant
(p<0.05), the relationship of patients’ mean PSQI scores with
gender, marital status, the frequency of seizures, the presence of
another disease other than epilepsy, the use of drugs other than
antiepileptic drugs, and the number of drugs used, was also determined
to be significant (p<0.005). In addition, a positive and
statistically significant relationship was observed between FSS and PSQI
(p<0.001). Conclusion: As a result, in the present study,
patients with epilepsy were found to have a poor quality of sleep and
the fatigue at the borderline. The data of the study demonstrates that
the treatments and attempts to improve the quality of sleep also
alleviate the fatigue of patients. For this reason, it is important to
routinely handle sleep and fatigue problems of patients with epilepsy
with a multidisciplinary approach and to develop effective approaches
for their solution.