Parents’ experiences of caring children with epilepsy : A descriptive review

Abstract: Background: Epilepsy, as a chronic neurological disease, not only seriously affects thephysical and mental health of children with epilepsy, but also affects their familymembers, especially their parents. Taking care of children with epilepsy has broughtmany negative effects to their parents. There have been many qualitative studies thathave conducted in-depth research on the experience of parents caring for children withepilepsy.Aim: The aim of the review was to describe the experiences of parents who had childrenwith epilepsy.Methods: The authors conducted a descriptive review. The search terms used are child,epilepsy, parents.These search terms were searched through different combinations.Results: A total of 9 articles were included in this study for the results analysis. Amongthem, 7 were qualitative studies and 2 were mixed methods. This study identifiedthe experience of parents into three themes: 1. parents have negative emotionalreactions; 2. parents sense a change in communication; 3. parents feel life has changed.Conclusions: The study highlighted the experience of parents of children with epilepsy.Parents of children with epilepsy typically experienced negative emotions, changed howthey communicate with their children and friends, and changed their lives.Keywords: child, epilepsy, experience, parents.