Transitioning Care for Youth with Epilepsy
Summary
Youth with epilepsy face a critical juncture when moving from paediatric to adult services. Effective transition balances medical, psychosocial and educational needs to ensure continuity of seizure control and support self-management. Key challenges include heterogeneity of epilepsy syndromes, variable access to specialist services, gaps in communication between providers, and differing expectations around autonomy. A successful transition framework involves early preparation, age-appropriate education, joint paediatric–adult clinics, structured handover of clinical information and ongoing psychosocial support. Models range from discrete transfer protocols to lifespan clinics offering unbroken specialist care. Outcomes are best when multidisciplinary teams collaborate, patients and families share decision-making, and systems track readiness and adherence throughout adolescence and early adulthood.
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Transitioning Care for Youth with Epilepsy publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in transitioning care for youth with epilepsy across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Transition readiness: Assessment of a young person’s knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their condition as they enter adult care.
Self-management support: Interventions—often led by nursing teams—that equip patients and families with skills for medication adherence, seizure monitoring and lifestyle adjustments.
Lifespan clinic: A care model in which the same specialist team follows patients from childhood through adulthood, reducing the need for formal transfer.
Delphi consensus: A structured method for achieving expert agreement through iterative anonymous surveys and controlled feedback.
Multidisciplinary team: Healthcare professionals from diverse fields—such as neurology, nursing, psychology and social work—collaborating to address the full spectrum of patient needs.
References
- Barriers and facilitators of nurse-led self-management support for adolescents with epilepsy: A mixed-methods study in transition preparation. Heliyon (2024).
- Rare and Complex Epilepsies from Childhood to Adulthood: Requirements for Separate Management or Scope for a Lifespan Holistic Approach?. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports (2021).
- Delphi consensus on the transition from paediatric to adult epilepsy care. Neurology Perspectives (2024).
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