Psychiatric comorbidity, quality of life and social support in epileptic patients

Epilepsy is accompanied by many psychiatric disorders and continues to be a disease that disturbs the functioning and quality of life (QOL) of patients.

To assess the frequency of psychiatric disorders occurring in epileptic patients, determine depression and anxiety levels, and compare the results with healthy controls. The effect of epilepsy on QOL and the effects of social support on epilepsy were also assessed.

50 epileptic patients and 50 controls were compared using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Scale, Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-Brief (WHOQOL-Brief).

44% of epileptic patients had psychiatric disorders, with depression being the most common diagnoses (28%). In terms of psychiatric comorbidity, there was a significant difference between the groups. The depression and anxiety scores of epileptic patients were significantly higher and there was no difference between the groups in terms of MSPSS scores. Psychological and physical subscale scores of WHOQOL-Brief were significantly lower in epileptic patients. In the epileptic group, a multi-variate analysis of covariance demonstrated that depression was a significant covariate for physical and psychological domains, anxiety was a significant covariate for psychological domain, social support was a significant covariate for social and environmental domains, and age of epilepsy onset was a significant covariate for physical domain of QOL.

Epilepsy needs multi-dimensional analysis because of its chronic nature, frequently accompanying psychiatric disorders, its negative effects on QOL and the important role social support plays. The clinicians' handling of patients at an early stage can play an important role in preventing the negative results of epilepsy.