Publication:

Depression in adults with epilepsy attending epilepsy clinic in tertiary care hospital: an observational study

Background Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. Depressive disorders are the most common psychiatric co-morbidity in patients with epilepsy. Early detection and treatment improve overall health related quality in these patients.

Methods A prospective cross sectional observational study was conducted across 6 months (December 2018-May 2019) in a tertiary care hospital. The present study included 50 registered patients and various socio-demographic factors like age, sex, marital status, literacy, drug compliance and status of seizure control etc. were evaluated in regards to prevalence and severity of depression.

Results Out of 50 patients, 27 patients (54%) showed signs of depression. Out of which 10 patients (20%) showed signs of mild depression, 6 patients (12%) showed signs of moderate depression, 7 patients (14%) showed signs of moderately severe depression whereas 4 patients (8%) showed signs of severe depression and there was a strong association of drug compliance, current epilepsy status and last seizure episode with various degree of depression.

Conclusions Depression is an illness with a significant morbidity and mortality. Its association with epilepsy is very strong. Various factors contribute to depression which include compliance of drugs, last seizure episode, current status of epilepsy, etc. Unfortunately, depression among epileptics is very much under diagnosed and therefore untreated. A through psychiatric assessment should be done in these patients with epilepsy for depression and appropriate treatment should be instituted.