Abstracts

Rationale: Depression and anxiety are the most frequent type of psychiatric disorders identified in epilepsy patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among epilepsy patients and to determine whether having other chronic somatic illnesses increases their prevalence.Methods: Adults age 18 and older who had epilepsy for at least one year were recruited in either the inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit or the outpatient epilepsy clinic at the Thomas Jefferson University in 2006. Patients anonymously filled out a questionnaire, included data about age, sex, education, having other illnesses, and degree of seizure control. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale was used to define the presence or absence of anxiety and depression. Chi Square and t-test were used for statistical analyses. Results: 200 patients participated, with a mean age of 40.3 ± 16 years. Nineteen (9.5%) patients had depression and 49 (24.5%) had anxiety. Age, seizure control, and having other chronic illnesses did not have a significant relationship with either depression or anxiety. Gender did not have a significant relationship with depression, but was significantly related to anxiety, with females displaying greater frequency of anxiety than males. Depression was inversely related to education, higher levels of education being associated with a lower frequency of depression. Conclusions: Having another chronic illness in addition to epilepsy did not increase the prevalence of depression or anxiety. Lower education was a significant risk factor for having depression and female sex was a significant risk factor for having anxiety. It is probable that people with higher education use more positive ways to psychological and physical adaptation to their illness and engage in more active coping strategies.