ABSTRACT

All chronic conditions present important quality of life challenges to those affected by them and to those concerned with their treatment. Because of the clinical complexities surrounding its definition, diagnosis and management and the cultural-historical legacies surrounding its present-day social reality, it seems to us that epilepsy presents more challenges than most. In the preceding chapters, our various contributors have tried to summarise current understanding of how a diagnosis of epilepsy impinges on a person's quality of life and how its impact can be minimised through optimal clinical management, provided by a multi-disciplinary team. In this last chapter, we speculate on how current and future developments in the treatment and delivery of services for epilepsy may impinge on the quality of life of people receiving them. We also focus on how theoretical and methodological developments in the science of quality of life assessment will influence future quality of life research.