Avaliação da religiosidade e variáveis correlatas em pacientes com Epilepsia do lobo temporal

Abstract

Introduction: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common type of epilepsy in adults. There are reports that patients with TLE exhibit striking features, one of them hyperreligiosity. Religious beliefs can influence the way how people deal with situations like stress, suffering and vital problems. Objectives: Evaluate variables related to religiosity and itscorrelates with sociodemographic, clinical and quality of life in patients with TLE. Methods: We selected 73 patients treated by the Epilepsy Clinic of Neurology Department, Clinics Hospital UFMG, Minas Gerais - Brazil. We collected socio-demographic data and employed the following instruments: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Beck DepressionInventory (BDI), Quality of life in epilepsy inventory (QOLIE-31); Scale religiosity Duke University (DUREL); Neurobehavior inventory - religious aspects (NBI-R). Results: Patients scored higher than the healthy subjects, included in the validation study of the DUREL, in subscales DUREL1 and DUREL2 that assess the extrinsic religiosity, but not in DUREL345, which evaluates intrinsic religiosity. The DUREL345 had higher scores in subjects with lower education, greater age, unemployed and with poor performance in MMSE. The NBI-R had higher scores in patients with worst MMSE and with higher frequency of seizures per month. The subscales of DUREL and NBI-R had all, significant correlations between them, except with the DUREL2 and DUREL345. The final quality of life (QOLIE-31) and the presence of depression (BDI) showed no correlation with religiosity scales assessed by DUREL and NBIR. Conclusion: The results suggest that patients with TLE have higher organizational and non-organizational religiosity than healthy subjects. The DUREL345 is influenced by many socio-demographic variables. In this way, populations with low socioeconomic status, academic or cognitive, as in this study and validation study of the DUREL, there may be a ceiling effect and damage to assessment of religiosity intrinsic. The absence of correlation between the variables of religiosity with QOL final and depression may be due to a complex relation of mutual influence between religion and welfare. Longitudinal studies and the inclusion of a control group may elucidate the association between religiosity, quality of life and TLE.