Frequency of Anxiety and Depression in Epileptic Patients

Objectives: Depression and anxiety are commonly seen among epileptic patients. These comorbidities have a negative effect on achievement of effective treatment and improvement in the quality of life of epileptic patients. We aimed to determine the frequency of anxiety and depression in epilepsy and in subgroups of epileptic patients and their correlation with disease duration and seizure frequency.

Methods: Forty-one young male patients (13 temporal lobe epilepsy and 28 extra-temporal lobe epilepsy) and 48 young males as a healthy control group were included in the study. Each study participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.

Results: There were high frequencies of anxiety (26.8%) and depression (34.14%) in the epileptic patients compared with control group (p=0.003, p=0.001, respectively). Although there was no statistical significance, the temporal lobe epilepsy group had higher anxiety and depression frequencies than the extra-temporal lobe epilepsy group (p=0.280, p=0.089, respectively). There was no significant correlations between disease duration and either anxiety inventory scores or depression inventory scores. However in the temporal lobe epilepsy group, we found a correlation with a medium level of significance between seizure frequency and Beck Anxiety Inventory scores as well as Beck Depression Inventory scores (r= 0.521, p= 0.068; r= 0.615, p= 0.025).

Conclusion: There were high frequencies of anxiety and depression in epileptic patients. A multidisciplinary approach and inter-disciplinary help co-operation is needed in the treatment of epilepsy. There is a need for controlled studies with larger sample sizes.