Prevalence of MDD twice that of generalized anxiety disorder among those with epilepsy
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Among 2,214 persons with epilepsy, 7.5% had MDD, and 4% had generalized anxiety disorder.
- Those on valproic acid had the highest rates of MDD, while those on topiramate had the highest rates of GAD.
ORLANDO — Among individuals with epilepsy, the prevalence of a major depressive disorder diagnosis was almost doubled compared with generalized anxiety disorder and varied by type of antiseizure medication used, according to a poster.
“The most important thing was whether or not our patients who present to us with seizures or epilepsy have underlying anxiety disorders or depression,” Hira Pervez, MD, a resident physician in the department of neurology at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, told Healio at the American Epilepsy Society annual meeting. “Our secondary outcome was to see whether or not antiseizure medications are helping or worsening their symptoms.”
Image: Adobe Stock
Pervez and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of data from more than 3,000 people with epilepsy who had their initial visit at a tertiary care epilepsy center. After further screening, 2,214 individuals were included for analysis (mean age, 39.7 years; 51.4% women), of whom 1,413 were diagnosed with focal epilepsy, 775 with generalized epilepsy and 26 with a combination of focal and generalized epilepsy.
Researchers further divided patients by psychiatric disorder diagnosis and antiseizure medication and used Chi-square tests for categorical data analysis.
According to results, 166 participants were diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 88 were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
The prevalence of MDD was 7.1% for those on valproic acid, 6.3% for levetiracetam, 5.6% for topiramate, 4.8% for lamotrigine and 4.7% for lacosamide; conversely, prevalence of GAD was 3.5% for topiramate, 3.4% for levetiracetam, 3.2% for valproic acid, 3.1% for lamotrigine and 2.2% for lacosamide.
Pervez noted that researchers evaluated only monotherapy in the study.
“Although this study does not establish causality, the mood-stabilizing potential of these antiseizure medications as well as impact of these medications on comorbid psychiatric conditions needs to be further explored,” Pervez and colleagues concluded.