Background: Depression is most common psychiatric disorder in patients with epilepsy and it is the significant cause of morbidity. 1 Upto 50-60 percent of patients with epilepsy may develop psychiatric complications, particularly depression, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. 2 There is growing evidence of biological link between depression and epilepsy, and significant factors involved are the biological amines and gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) 3 along with other neurobiological and psychosocial factors. This study assess the symptoms and severity of psychiatric comorbidities in patients diagnosed with epilepsy. Methods and Findings: This study was conducted on patients attending psychiatric outpatient epilepsy clinic in psychiatry department, government medical college, Amritsar. A total of 40 patients were studied to find out the prevalence and severity of depression by using self applicable questionnaire, Beck depression inventory (BDI), 4 and MINI, in patients who are diagnosed with epilepsy by clinical interview and examination by senior psychiatrist consultant. In the results of our study 50% patients had psychiatric co-morbidities.40% had depressive disorder. Depression is found to be more among females in our study. 22.5 % were females and 17.5% were males. Among depressed patients, 22.5% had severe depression. Prevalence of moderate depression was 15% , and 2.5 % had borderline clinical depression, 5% had psychosis, and 5% had substance dependence. Conclusion: Diagnosing psychiatric co-morbidities can be difficult in patients with epilepsy. The treatment of both epilepsy and depression need for close collaboration. Patient taking antiepileptic medication may have symptoms of depression as a result of their treatment. Sadly, data from drug trials are often helpful. The antiepileptic medications most closely associated with acute depression on initiation of treatment are vigabatrin, phenobarbitone, and topiramate. Depression with topiramate may be due to abrupt cessation of seizures or drug toxicity. Patients starting tiagabine may develop symptoms of agitation, withdrawal, and mood disturbance suggestive of depression;. Thus good awareness and recognition of psychiatric conditions can help a long way in improving the quality of care of patients with epilepsy.
Background: Depression is a disorder of major public health importance. Over the last 50 years, large number of studies have been published from India addressing various aspects of depression. The objective of the current study was to study the socio-demographic characteristics and anxiety as co-morbidity in patients with major depressive disorder. Method: This was a cross sectional study conducted in tertiary care hospital in which 100 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, according to ICD-10 were assessed for presence of anxiety disorder as psychiatric Comorbidity using MINI and severity of anxiety was assessed using HAM-A. Results: Current study showed major depressive disorder is more common among females 59%, married 79%, housewife 50%, 61% had first episode of depression and 27% had family history of major depressive disorder. There was 48% presence of any anxiety disorder among total major depressive disorder patients. Among which 25% had generalized anxiety disorder, 9% obsessive compulsive disorder, 5% panic disorder, 4% agoraphobia, 4% post traumatic stress disorder and 1% social anxiety disorder among total patients with major depressive disorder. The maximum number of patients 43% had mild to moderate level of anxiety, 32% had mild anxiety, 19% had moderate to severe anxiety and 6% had severe anxiety. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of anxiety disorders in major depressive disorder which is oftenly ignored because of symptom overlap between anxiety and major depression. This study is important because of increasing prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity among the patients of major depressive disorders lead to impaired functioning in patients with MDD. Therefore, monitoring of symptoms as well as functioning during the long-term management MDD could be crucial to achieve the functioning remission.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.