Abstracts

Rationale: Within the epilepsy patient population, high incidence rates of mood and anxiety disorders have been described.1,2 These psychiatric conditions are associated with a particularly poor quality of life3. This investigation will attempt to measure the impact of different psychiatric disorders (using brief-self reports and the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI)) on quality of life. The utility of brief self reports will also be assessed. Methods: A total of 69 consecutive epilepsy outpatients from the Medical City tertiary care center in North Texas were enrolled over an eight-month period. Eligible outpatients were administered the 16 item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Rating (QIDS-SR16), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Quality of Life Inventory in Epilepsy-31 (QOLE-31) and the Mood Disorders Questionnaire (MDQ). Patients were contacted within three days of initial screening via telephone for an assessment interview. At that interview, participants were administered the MINI and the 16 item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Clinician Rating (QIDS-C16). Participants were grouped within categories: mood disorder, anxiety disorder, both mood and anxiety disorder, major depressive episode (mde)-plus (plus refers to one or more additional Axis I disorder(s) as defined by the MINI, and Axis I disorder. A comparison between the short self report instruments and those administered during the interview will be conducted using diagnostic efficiency statistics. Results: The prevalence of current Axis I disorder as defined by the MINI, amongst participants were 30.43% (21/69). There were 13 out of 69 participants or 18.84% of participants with comorbid Axis I diagnoses. Specifically the number of categorized patients are: mood disorder 14.49% (10/69), anxiety disorder 23.19% (16/69), mood and anxiety disorder 8.70% (6/69), and major depressive episode plus 13.04% (9/69). A table comparing the screenings from short self-reports (eg, QIDS-SR16) to the MINI (sensitivity and specificity) will be updated before the meeting. The impact of the different disorder groups on QOL scores are listed in Table 1. Conclusions: Some psychiatric conditions are associated with a poorer quality of life in epilepsy patients. The mood disorder group, mood and anxiety disorder group, and mde-plus group had most severe impact in quality of life when compared to the Axis I group and the anxiety alone group. 1 Kanner, A.M. (2003). Depression in epilepsy: prevalence, clinical semiology, pathogenic mechanisms, and treatment. Society of Biological Psychiatry, 54, 388-398. 2 Jones, J.E., Hermann, B.P., Barry, J.J., Gilliam, F., Kanner, A.M. and Meador, K.J. (2005). Clinical assessment of axis I psychiatric morbidity in chronic epilepsy: A multicenter investigation. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 17, 172-179. 3 Spencer, S.S. & Hunt, P.W. (1996). Quality of life in epilepsy. Journal of Epilepsy, 9, 3-13.