Comparison of Alexithymia, Perceived Stress and Emotion Regulation Between Patients with Epileptic and Non-Epileptic Seizures

Abstract

Background: Different psychological factors may explain the differences between epileptic and non-epileptic seizures. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to compare alexithymia, perceived stress, and emotion regulation between patients with epileptic and non-epileptic seizures. Methods: In the present cross-sectional research, 82 patients (39 with epileptic seizures and 43 with non-epileptic seizures) were selected. Using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) (Bagby et al., 1994), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen et al., 1983) and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ) (Garnefski and Kraaij, 2006), the required data were collected and then analyzed using the SPSS-19 software. Results: According to the results, patients with non-epileptic seizures had significantly higher scores in TAS, especially in the subscales of difficulty identifying feelings and externally oriented thinking, PSS and CERQ, especially in the subscales of catastrophizing and other-blame and lower scores in CERQ’s subscales of acceptance, positive reappraisal, and positive refocusing compared to patients with epileptic seizures (P < 0.05). The non-epileptic seizure group score was higher in the event acceptance subscale (as a positive emotion regulation) (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that patients with epileptic seizures have a more favorable condition in terms of alexithymia, emotion regulation, and perceived stress compared to those with non-epileptic seizures.