Home-based, interactive videoconferencing for adolescents with epilepsy and their families

Context: Home-based videoconferencing may be a promising vehicle for providing much-needed counseling services to at-risk adolescents with epilepsy and their families. However, there has been only limited research examining differences in user perceptions of telecommunication-mediated counseling versus traditional, office-based counseling. Objective: To examine differences between the perceptions of adolescents with epilepsy and their parents in regard to comfort, distraction, and therapeutic alliance across 3 different modalities: (a) home-based video-system counseling, (b) home-based speakerphone counseling, and (c) videotaped, office-based counseling. Results: Mothers and adolescents reported moderately high levels of comfort and therapeutic alliance and low levels of distraction across all modalities. Adolescents were more comfortable and less distracted than their mothers across all three conditions. Conclusions: These results lend preliminary support to the use of telecommunication-mediated counseling with at-risk adolescents with epilepsy.