quality of life in adolescents with epilepsy assessed with a measure for adults

Letter to the editor

Quality of life in adolescents with epilepsyassessed with a measure for adults

Dear Sirs,Quality of life (QOL) is an important outcome inepilepsy clinical trials, with assessments strictlyregulated (1). The regulations concern the entiretrial design, from the early planning stages, to thefinal interpretation of the findings, but they areprimarily directed towards a QOL instrument thatwill be used in the trial. To nowadays, manydifferent instruments for QOL assessment aredeveloped, for both, children and adolescent (2)and adults with epilepsy (3).In a recent study of carbamazepine and

oxcarbazepine conversion to topiramate, theauthors evaluated the QOL of adolescents andadults with epilepsy using the QOLIE 10 instru-ment (4). The QOLIE 10 is a brief screening andepilepsy-specific measure developed for adults andthere are no data that it is suitable for adolescents(3, 5). Therefore, my concerns are about the effectsof the inappropriate instrument used in the trial, asa methodological weakness biasing the findings.

Dejan Stevanovic, MDHealth Care Center Odzaci, Mostong Street 25,

25250 Odzaci, Serbiae-mail: dejanstevanovic@eunet.yu

References

1. Cramer JA, Camfield C, Carpay H et al. Principals of health-related quality of life: assessments in clinical trials. Epilepsia2002;43:1084–95.

2. Ronen GM, Streiner DL, Rosenbaum P. Health-related qualityof life in childhood epilepsy: �moving beyond seizure controlwith minimal adverse effects�. Health Qual Life Outcomes2003;1:36–46.

3. Leone MA, Beghi E, Righini C et al. Epilepsy and quality oflife in adults: a review of instruments. Epilepsy Res 2005;66:23–44.

4. Kowalik A, Rimpau W, Adam H et al. Conversion fromcarbamazepine or oxcarbazepine to topiramate in adoles-cents and adults with epilepsy. Acta Neurol Scand 2008;117:159–66.

5. Cramer JA, Perrine K, Devinsky O, Meador K. A briefquestionnaire to screen for quality of life in epilepsy: theQOLIE-10. Epilepsia 1996;37:577–82.

Editor�s comment:

The author of the manuscript in Acta NeurolScand 2008;117:159–66, Dr Kowalik, has beenasked to comment on this Letter to the Editor byDr Stevanovic. He has, however, decided not toreply.

Elinor Ben-MenachemChief Editor

Acta Neurol Scand 2008: 118: 343 DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2008.01022.x Copyright � 2008 The AuthorJournal compilation � 2008 Blackwell Munksgaard

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