Prevalence of epilepsy and comorbidity of psychiatric disorders in Iran.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the lifetime prevalence of self- and other relative informants-reported epilepsy in nationwide study among Iranian adults of aged 18 years and over and to study the association of epilepsy with lifetime history of the psychiatric disorders.


METHODS
Twenty-five thousand one hundred and eighty individual were selected through a randomized clustered sampling method from all the Iranian households; interviewed and used epilepsy questionnaire face-to-face at home in year 2001. From 12,398,235 households residing in Iran, 7795 families selected from 1559 clusters, 997 clusters were in urban and 582 were in rural areas, each cluster with 5 households were studied. The response rate was 90%.


RESULTS
The prevalence of epilepsy was 1.8%. Epilepsy was more common in females, unemployed and higher educational level. It was not significantly associated with the age group, marital status and residential areas. The most common psychiatric disorders in subjects with epilepsy were major depressive disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. The rate of lifetime suicidal attempt was 8.1%.


CONCLUSIONS
Lifetime prevalence of epilepsy in Iran is not low. As the other communities, it is more common in females and unemployed. However, in contrast with the other studies, it was not more common among some age groups and unmarried and low educated subjects.
Mohammadi
Mohammad Reza
MR
Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Roozbeh Hospital, South Kargar St., 13185/1741 Tehran, Iran. mohammadi@nrcms.ir
Ghanizadeh
Ahmad
A
Davidian
Haratoun
H
Mohammadi
Mohammad
M
Norouzian
Maryam
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires