The Effectiveness of Attribution Retraining on Health Enhancement of Epileptic Children

OBJECTIVE Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease. Evidence has indicated that epilepsy has an impact on mental and physical health of children. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of attribution retraining on health enhancement of epileptic children. MATERIALS & METHODS This was an experimental study with a pre-test and a post-test design with a control group. Thirty students with epilepsy (11 female and 19 male students) were selected in convenience from Iranian Epilepsy Association. They were assigned to experimental and control groups and their mothers completed Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-PF.28) before and after the intervention. The experimental group attended to eleven sessions (each session 45 minutes; twice a week). Subjects were trained by attribution retraining program, but control group was not. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used for analyzing the data. RESULTS Health (both psychosocial and physical) of experimental group enhanced significantly after the intervention sessions compared to control group. CONCLUSION Attribution retraining is an effective intervention to enhance the psychosocial and physical health of epileptic children.