Marital Behavior Among Patients with Epilepsy: A Single-Center Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Background: Epilepsy patients have a higher age of marriage with hurdles in seeking a compatible partner, higher divorce, and low fertility rates. This study was done to assess fertility characteristics, and the quality of marital life among patients with refractory epilepsy. Methodology: A cross-sectional study including 139 refractory epilepsy patients, classified as per age, gender, epilepsy syndrome, seizure semiology, and seizure frequency. Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE-31) scores and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire were administered. Statistical analyses through SPSS with post hoc analysis and logarithmic regression for binomial variables were done. Results: Marital outcomes in the study indicated divorce rates of 19.4% in refractory epilepsy patients with females at 12.2% and males at 7.1%. Higher fertility rate of 0.926 and 0.438 among males and females, respectively (per 1,000 women years), which is lower than the general population rate, 2.6% noted. Reduced seizure frequency after surgical interventions had better marital outcomes with lower divorce rates (13.474) and better QOLIE-31 scores (65.6 ± 6.9) compared to those who did not receive surgical intervention (59.2 ± 3.8). QOLIE-31 score was 63.9 ± 5.1 among structural etiologies and 66.4 ± 3.8 for other etiologies. Among those who had surgery, patients with focal epilepsy with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, both operated and unoperated, had better scores (64.7 ±2.3). PSQI global scores were lower among nonstructural causes of seizures (12.7 ± 2.9), and had good correlation with their higher QOLIE-31 scores. Conclusion: Surgical interventions were noticed to have better marital outcome in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Social functioning domain of the QOLIE-31 score can help predict poorer marital outcomes. Improving therapeutic awareness can further reduce the challenges faced by patients with epilepsy, leading to better social acceptance and marital outcomes. Publication History Article published online: 15 July 2026 © 2026. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Limited A-13A, Graphix Tower 1, 6th floor, Sector 62, Noida 201309, Uttar Pradesh, India