The social context and the need of information from patients with epilepsy: evaluating a tertiary referral service.

Objective: Characterize the social profile and the need of information from patients with refractory epilepsy.

Method: A semi-structured questionnaire was applied to 103 patients to investigate sociodemographic aspects, pharmacotherapy and any doubts about epilepsy.

Results: Patients were highly dependent on having a free and accessible supply of antiepileptic drugs.

Validation of the Subjective Handicap of Epilepsy (SHE) in Brazilian patients with epilepsy.

The objectives of the study were to translate and adapt the Subjective Handicap of Epilepsy (SHE) instrument to Brazilian Portuguese and to determine its psychometric properties for the evaluation of quality of life in patients with epilepsy. A sample of 448 adult patients with epilepsy with different clinical profiles (investigation, preoperative period, postoperative period, and drug treatment follow-up) was evaluated with the SHE and the Epilepsy Surgery Inventory (ESI-55). Exploratory factorial analysis demonstrated that four factors explained 60.