Anxiety and depressive disorders in people with epilepsy; A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is a neurological disease that affects individuals of all ages. People with epilepsy are more susceptible to psychiatric diseases and comorbidities such as depression and anxiety disease. The existence of such co-morbidities among epileptic patients has a negative impact on the quality of life of patients and can result in worse responses to management.
Aim: To assess the presence of anxiety and depression in individuals with epilepsy by reviewing the previous studies that evaluated this subject.
Methods: Obtaining articles related to our subject required searching through PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Springer, and Scopus using different terms including "Depression, Anxiety, Epilepsy, Prevalence, Association, Correlation, Risk Factors, and Predictors." Original, English, full-text articles were eligible for inclusion in this review.
Results: In agreement with the eligible criteria, there were ten studies included in this review with a total number of 3626 individuals with epilepsy and an age range of 12-88 years. Four studies reported both anxiety and depression, whereas the remaining six studies focused on depression only.
Conclusion: There was a higher prevalence of anxiety among epileptic patients compared to depression. There were common risk factors for developing anxiety and depression among people with epilepsy, including female gender, seizure occurrence, marital status, poly-medication, epilepsy duration, and perceived stigma.