Journal of Isfahan Medical School

Journal of Isfahan Medical School

The Effect of Emotion Regulation Intervention on Quality of Life, Cognitive Emotion Regulation, and Seizures in Patients with Nonepileptic Seizures

Document Type : Original Article (s)

Authors
Mojgan Shokrolahi 1
Mahgol Tavakoli 2
Maryam Esmaeili 2
Majid Barekatain 3
1 Department of Psychology, School of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, School of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
3 Professor, Psychosomatic Research Center AND Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan, Iran
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.
Keywords
Seizure
Nonepileptic
Emotions
Quality of Life
  1. Marie GP. Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Innov Clin Neurosci 2013; 10(11-12): 15-8.
  2. Urbanek M, Harvey M, McGowan J, Agrawal N. Regulation of emotions in psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Epilepsy Behav 2014; 37: 110-5.
  3. Novakova B, Howlett S, Baker R, Reuber M. Emotion processing and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A cross-sectional comparison of patients and healthy controls. Seizure 2015; 29: 4-10.
  4. Gul A, Ahmad H. Cognitive deficits and emotion regulation strategies in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: A task-switching study. Epilepsy Behav 2014; 32: 108-13.
  5. Viteri C, Codina M, Cobaleda S, Lahuerta J, Barriga J, Morales MD. Quality of life and treatment satisfaction in Spanish epilepsy patients on monotherapy with lamotrigine or valproic acid. Seizure 2010; 19(7): 432-8.
  6. Karakis I, Montouris GD, Piperidou C, Luciano MS, Meador KJ, Cole AJ. Patient and caregiver quality of life in psychogenic non-epileptic seizures compared to epileptic seizures. Seizure 2014; 23(1): 47-54.
  7. Conwill M, Oakley L, Evans K, Cavanna AE. CBT-based group therapy intervention for nonepileptic attacks and other functional neurological symptoms: a pilot study. Epilepsy Behav 2014; 34: 68-72.
  8. Baslet G, Dworetzky B, Perez DL, Oser M. Treatment of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: updated review and findings from a mindfulness-based intervention case series. Clin EEG Neurosci 2015; 46(1): 54-64.
  9. Ochsner KN, Gross JJ. The cognitive control of emotion. Trends Cogn Sci 2005; 9(5): 242-9.
  10. Hartley CA, Phelps EA. Changing fear: the neurocircuitry of emotion regulation. Neuropsychopharmacology 2010; 35(1): 136-46.
  11. Allen LB, McHugh RK, Barlow DH. Emotional disorders: A unified protocol. In: Barlow DH, editor. Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A Step-by-step treatment manual. 4th ed. New York, NY: Guilford; 2007. p. 216-49.
  12. Schuppert HM, Timmerman ME, Bloo J, van Gemert TG, Wiersema HM, Minderaa RB, et al. Emotion regulation training for adolescents with borderline personality disorder traits: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2012; 51(12): 1314-23.
  13. Khosravani V, Sharifi BF, Ghorbani F, Kamali Z. Difficulties in emotion regulation mediate negative and positive affects and craving in alcoholic patients. Addict Behav 2017; 71: 75-81.
  14. Moradi A, Taheri S. Evaluation positive psychology in students. Tehran, Iran: Danje Publication; 2012. [In Persian].
  15. Aminabadi Z, Dehghani M, Khodapanahi MK. Factor structure and validation of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Journal of Behavioral Sciences 2012; 5(4): 365-71. [In Persian].
  16. Patidar Y, Gupta M, Khwaja GA, Chowdhury D, Batra A, Dasgupta A. Clinical profile of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in adults: A study of 63 cases. Ann Indian Acad Neurol 2013; 16(2): 157-62.
  17. Metin SZ, Ozmen M, Metin B, Talasman S, Yeni SN, Ozkara C. Treatment with group psychotherapy for chronic psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Epilepsy Behav 2013; 28(1): 91-4.
  18. Wiseman H, Mousa S, Howlett S, Reuber M. A multicenter evaluation of a brief manualized psychoeducation intervention for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures delivered by health professionals with limited experience in psychological treatment. Epilepsy Behav 2016; 63: 50-6.
  19. Portuguez MW, Costa DId, Marroni SP, Pagliarini V, Vieira K. Neuropsychological aspects of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Journal of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology 2007; 13: 24-7.
  20. Safavi S. Evaluation of effectiveness of emotion regulation therapy on self-efficacy, coping styles, interpersonal problem, cognitive emotion regulation strategies and severity of symptoms of alexithymia, in student with symptoms of alexithymia [MSc Thesis]. Isfahan, Iran: School of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Isfahan; 2014. [In Persian].
  21. Bagherinia H, Yamini M, Javadielmi L, Nooradi T. Comparison of the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness-based therapy in improving cognitive emotion regulation in major depressive disorder. Armaghane-danesh 2015; 20(3): 210-9. [In Persian].
  22. Goldin PR, Lee I, Ziv M, Jazaieri H, Heimberg RG, Gross JJ. Trajectories of change in emotion regulation and social anxiety during cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder. Behav Res Ther 2014; 56: 7-15.
  23. Mayor R, Brown RJ, Cock H, House A, Howlett S, Smith P, et al. A feasibility study of a brief psycho-educational intervention for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Seizure 2013; 22(9): 760-5.
  24. Cope SR, Smith JG, King T, Agrawal N. Evaluation of a pilot innovative cognitive-behavioral therapy-based psychoeducation group treatment for functional non-epileptic attacks. Epilepsy Behav 2017; 70(Pt A): 238-44.
Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 35, Issue 434 - Serial Number 434
May and June 2017
Pages 677-685

  • Receive Date 15 May 2016
  • Accept Date 06 April 2022