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A Qualitative Study Exploring Family Life in Men Following Neurosurgery for Adult Onset Epileptic Seizures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Martin Raffaele
Martin Raffaele*
Affiliation:
Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Room T-424, 10 Cumberland Campus, 75 East Street Lidcombe, NSW, 2141, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Martin Raffaele, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Room T-424, 10 Cumberland Campus, 75 East Street Lidcombe, NSW, 2141, Australia. E-mail: martin.raffaele@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

This study explored family relationship dynamics of men with Adult Onset Epileptic Seizures (AOES) following an elective lobectomy procedure to address their frequent seizure activity. Informants were five Australian men with history of adult-onset epilepsy for which they received neurosurgery (aged 34–59 years). Thematic analysis following semi-structured interviews yielded three themes: role marginalization, role dependency and role enmeshment. All the men reported significant role marginalization in not being consulted about everyday life activities. They also reported to experience decisional role shifting towards their spouses or partners and children post-surgery. Their family role enmeshment experiences included being perceived by spouses or partners as adult–children and by their children as a parent–child. However, some of the men were accepting of these role definitions and to add rather than take away from their health-related quality of life.

Keywords

Adult onset seizuresubjective well-being (SWB)post-neurosurgeryfamily life satisfaction
Type
Articles
Information
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , December 2018 , pp. 55 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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