Comparing of family functioning among depressed and non- depressed epileptic women’s

Depression is a common psychological disorder in the patients with epilepsy which can lead to the disturbance in their vocational, social and familial process. Therefore the present study was conducted aiming to compare the family function between depressed and non-depressed women with epilepsy in the city of Isfahan. It was a causal-comparative study and its statistical population included all women above 50 years suffering from epilepsy in the city of Isfahan. The sample size in the present study included 50 depressed women with epilepsy and 50 non-depressed ones who were selected through purposive sampling method. The data collection was conducted through depression questionnaire (Beck, 1996), and the questionnaire of family function assessment (Epstein, Boldwin and Bishop, 1983). Independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant difference between the scores of the general performance of the family and the components of roles, affective reaction, affective engagement and the behavior control of the depressed and non-depressed women with epilepsy (P<0.05). No significant difference was observed between the scores of the components of problem-solving and communications in two groups. According to the above results it can be stated that the weakness in some of the components of familial performance of the family of the people with epilepsy can be one of the factors in these patients’ depression.