Common mental illness among epilepsy patients in Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Common mental illness has a substantial impact on seizure control and negatively affects the overall quality of life among individuals with epilepsy. However, there is a dearth of studies that examined the associated factors of common mental illness among epilepsy patients in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area. This study aimed to assess the magnitude and factors associated with common mental disorders in epilepsy patients who attended government health institutions in Bahir Dar city, Ethiopia. Method Health institution based cross-sectional study was conducted using a systematic sampling technique among people living with epilepsy in Bahir Dar City Administration. Common mental illness was assessed using a self-reporting questionnaire and a semi-structured questionnaire was employed to collect data on socio-demographic and clinical related characteristics. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, univariate logistic regression, and multivariable logistic regression. Results The magnitude of comorbid common mental illness among people living with epilepsy was found 35.4%. High magnitude of common mental illness was reported among females (39.9%) when compared to males (32.3%). The most prevalent common mental disorders symptoms include being worried, unhappy feeling, trouble thinking clearly, and difficult to enjoy daily activities. Family history of epilepsy, frequent seizures attacks, side effects of antiepileptic drugs, lack of social support and not adherent to antiepileptic drugs were factors associated with common mental illness. Conclusions Common mental illness was found to be prevalent among people living with epilepsy. Therefore, it is recommended that great attention should be given to mental illness besides controlling seizure attacks.

Prevalence and associated factors of common mental disorders among residents of Illu Ababore zone, southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

“…In most Ethiopian society especially in rural areas, women are expected to stay at home to care for their children and other home activities. In addition, women had a limitation of activities outside their homes, fewer opportunities for them in education and employment, and greater risk of domestic violence [14]. The other reason might be; women faced different hormonal changes at some stages of their life such as during menstruation cycle, pregnancy, and menopause which may predispose them to emotional changes.…”

“…The studies in Tanzania showed that the prevalence of CMD was 24-28.8% [9,12]. In different regions of Ethiopia, the prevalence of CMD ranges from 14.9 to 33.6% [13][14][15].…”

Systematic Literature Review of Psychiatric Comorbidities in Adults with Epilepsy

“…Although two articles were identified, they did not describe how epilepsy was diagnosed, and they might not have met our inclusion criteria. 51 52 In the future, larger systematic literature reviews that include a wider range of publication years, more diverse samples, and studies with more consistent diagnostic evaluations could provide a better understanding of the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in PWE. Finally, this study performed a qualitative analysis, and thus might not have been able to identify gaps in clinical care.…”

Treatment Outcome of Epileptic Patients Receiving Antiepileptic Drugs in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Twentythree primary studies were included in the present systematic review and meta-analysis. These studies were conducted in different parts of Ethiopia (from Amhara seven primary articles [7,[13][14][15][16][17][18], Oromiya eight [8,9,[19][20][21][22][23][24], Addis Ababa four [25][26][27][28], Tigray two [9,29], and Southern Nation, Nationalities, and People two articles) [30,31]. The sample size of the included primary studies was considerably variable ranging from 121 to 415 participants.…”

“…Regarding the seizurefree period, two studies assessed seizure freedom over one month [6,21], one study over two months [17], two studies over three months [7,14,25], and the remaining studies assessed seizure freedom over at least six months. Concerning the age groups, one study included only pediatric patients [7], two studies included all age group patients [13,19], and the remaining studies included only adult patients [6,8,9,[14][15][16][17][18][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Regarding the antiepileptic drugs, most of the patients were treated with monotherapy and the commonly used drugs were phenobarbitone, phenytoin, carbamazepine, and valproic acid [6-8, 17, 20, 26].…”