creator Fong, Wing Man advisor Lee, Eun-Jeong Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition that can cause negative consequences in all areas of life for people with the condition. Research evidence has led to the goal of treatment to gradually shift from targeting only reducing the frequency of seizures to decreasing individual’s perception of seizure severity. While several studies have suggested that psychological and social factors, in addition to epilepsy-related biological factors, can also impact seizure severity perception, this area has received much less attention in relation to individuals’ perception of seizure severity. Therefore, this study examined individuals’ perception of seizure severity using a biopsychosocial framework which takes into account biological, psychological, and social factors to develop a comprehensive understanding about the perception of seizure severity. 57 individuals from a neurology clinic at a tertiary medical center with a primary diagnosis of localization-related temporal lobe epilepsy participated in this study. They were interviewed for demographic information and were assessed using Quality of Life in Epilepsy-89, Beck Depression Inventory, Stressful Life Events Scale, and Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale. A Multiple regression analysis indicated that the number of antiepileptic drugs, perceived memory function, the number of stressful life events, and social support were all significant predictors of perceived seizure severity. The current findings supported a biopsychosocial approach in understanding the perception of seizure severity among people with epilepsy. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Submitted by Liana Khananashvili (khananashvili@iit.edu) on 2013-08-06T19:35:34Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Wing Man Fong_MS Thesis_2012 Dec.pdf: 653731 bytes, checksum: b52e132fac7b2979d8ecc748961b5b4b (MD5) Signed title page.pdf: 15130 bytes, checksum: 8a3b7ece9d413589c3465020280c03e1 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-06T19:35:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Wing Man Fong_MS Thesis_2012 Dec.pdf: 653731 bytes, checksum: b52e132fac7b2979d8ecc748961b5b4b (MD5) Signed title page.pdf: 15130 bytes, checksum: 8a3b7ece9d413589c3465020280c03e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12 M.S. in Psychology, December 2012 2012-12-17 2012-12 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3010 en Thesis born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access PSYCH / Institute of Psychology Illinois Institute of Technology Affiliated department