P.049 Quality of life in children with absence epilepsy

Background: Childhood absence epilepsy is a common generalized epilepsy in pediatric patients. Although this was considered a “benign” syndrome, new data suggests there are associated neurocognitive effects. This is the first study comparing quality of life and social functioning in those with absence epilepsy to those with other types of epilepsy. Methods: This observational study recruited patients from six Canadian academic centers. 106 patients had absence seizures, and 219 had other seizures. Established measures of depression, anxiety, social skills, social support, participation, quality of life, and epilepsy severity were assessed. MANCOVA was used to evaluate differences in social function, quality of life, and epilepsy severity measures, while accounting for age and gender. Results: This yielded a statistically significant result (Wilk’s lambda <0.05), with partial eta squared of 0.163. Follow up of between subjects tests revealed lower health related quality of life interpersonal/ social subscale and close friend social support scores in those with absence epilepsy, while other measures were not significant. Conclusions: Children with absence epilepsy have similar social function, quality of life and epilepsy severity measures compared to those with other types of epilepsy. This indicates that any dysfunction in these domains is similar to those with other types of epilepsy.