Objectives: To use the Paediatric Epilepsy Side Effects Questionnaire (PESQ) for identifying adverse effects of anti epileptic drugs (AEDs) in children with epilepsy. Methods: Patients meeting the inclusion criteria (patients of epilepsy aged 2­20 years, newly diagnosed, already under treatment) filled the PESQ during their first and subsequent visits. The two sets of data were compared & statistically analysed. Results: 57 patients completed the study. The PESQ scores: the total score and the scores of the 5 individual scales were calculated and compared. The occurrence of each adverse effect was noted for the first and subsequent visit. Conclusion: the PESQ doesn’t take time, is cheap, easy to use for the identification, quantification and assessment of adverse effects.

Keywords: PESQ; Epilepsy; Adverse Effects; Quality of Life (QOL); Paediatric Epilepsy; Epilepsy
Questionnaire