The Epilepsy study

The epilepsy study mentioned in the article is this one: Evaluation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for refractory epilepsy: A randomized control trial in South Africa The positive effects of psychological methods have long been known, but the research has hardly made an impact on the treatment of epilepsy. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a psychological treatment program consisting of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT-said as one word) together with some behavioural seizure control technology shown to be successful in earlier research. The method consisted of a RCT group design with repeated measures (N= 27). All participants had an EEG verified epilepsy diagnosis with drug refractory seizures. Participants were randomized into one of two conditions; ACT or attention control (AC). Therapeutic effects were measured by examining changes in quality of life (SWLS and WHOQOL) and total seizure time per month. Both treatment conditions consisted of only 9 hours of professional therapy distributed in two individual and two group sessions during a five-week period. The results showed significant effects over all of the dependent variables for the ACT group as compared to the control group at the 12-month follow ups. Seizures were reduced more than 90% at the one year follow up. The results from this study suggest that a short term psychotherapy program combined with anticonvulsant drugs may help to prevent the long-term disability that occurs from drug refractory seizures. Key words: Epilepsy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Seizure control techniques, South Africa Tobias Lundgren, tobiaslundgren455@hotmail.com Cellphone +46 70 612 4555, JoAnne Dahl, JoAnne.dahl@psyk.uu.se Cellphone +46 70 66 34 345 Lennart Melin, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden Bryan Kies Department of Neurology, University of Cape Town, South Africa