Abstract
Objective: The objective of this project is to study the presence of psychiatric comorbidity (anxiety and depression), somnolence and quality of life using validated scales in patients with epilepsy in real clinical practice, and its relationship with other clinical and demographic variables.
Background: Previous studies have shown that psychiatric comorbidity, specially anxiety and depression, as well as sleep disorders are more prevalent in patients with epilepsy than in the general population.
Design/Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive observational study using validated scales of anxiety disorders(GAD-7), depression(NDDI-E), sleep disorders(Epworth) and quality of life(QOLIE-31-P) in patients with epilepsy treated in the Refractory Epilepsy Unit of a tertiary hospital.
Results: We recruited 84 patients, age 44.3 ± 17.4 years, 48.2% women, duration of epilepsy 21.5 ± 15.9 years, number of antiepileptic drugs 1.9 ± 1.2. We found severe anxiety(GAD-7> 14) in 14.3%, depression(NDDI-E> 15) in 20.2%; abnormal sleepiness(Epworth> 10) in 14.3% of patients, and QOLIE-31-P 62.0 ± 19.2. Each more point in GAD-7 is 21% more likely to suffer from anxiety(OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.09–1.36; p = 0.0008), NDDI-E scores≤15 represent 85 % less chance of having depression(OR 0.15; 95% CI 0.04–0.51]; p = 0.002). We found a positive association between depression according to NDDI-E with seizure frequency(p = 0.017) and number of drugs(p = 0.019); and severe anxiety according to GAD-7 and number of drugs(p = 0.019). We found a negative correlation between QOLIE-31-P with NDDI-E(r = −0.68; p <0.0001) and GAD-7(r = −0.76; p <0.0001).
Conclusions: Validated scales in epilepsy for the detection of anxiety(GAD-7) and depression(NDDI-E) are useful in the detection of these disorders in real clinical practice. The assessment of the presence of anxiety-depressive psychiatric comorbidity is especially relevant in patients with a higher frequency of seizures, a greater number of drugs and a poorer quality of life.
Disclosure: Alicia Gonzalez-Martinez, MD has nothing to disclose.Álvaro Planchuelo-Gómez has received research support from Junta de Castilla y León (Spain) & European Social Fund. Francisco Martínez Dubarbie has nothing to disclose. Vieira Campos Alba has nothing to disclose. Jose A. Vivancos Mora has nothing to disclose. Maria de Toledo Heras has nothing to disclose.
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