Depressivity, anxiety and quality of life in patients with refractory epilepsy.
BACKGROUND
Depressive and anxiety disorders are very often comorbid with refractory epilepsy.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the impact of depressivity and anxiety on some aspects of the quality of life of patients with refractory epilepsy.


METHODS
The present open prospective study included 94 patients (67 women) with refractory epilepsy (mean age 42 years) who were categorised according to their medical history, individual clinical parameters and results of paraclinical studies. Beside these, the patients completed the questionnaires for depression (BDI-II), anxiety (HAS) and quality of life (QOLIE-89).


RESULTS
We found different degrees of depressivity in 59 patients (63.44%). Only three of the participants (3.19%) were found to have no depressivity or anxiety. In the remaining 91 patients (96.81%) we diagnosed anxiety in a different degree. The QOLIE-89 showed a low overall assessment of the quality of life in 54 patients (57.45%). We found: 1. A strong correlation between depressivity and the low overall assessment of quality of life as well as the assessment in the subscales for limitations due to physical problems, emotional wellbeing, attention/concentration, and memory. 2. A strong correlation between the increase of severity of depressivity and decrease of the overall assessment of quality of life. 3. A weak correlation between anxiety and the low overall assessment of QOL as well as the assessment in all subscales.


CONCLUSIONS
Depressivity is a factor which worsens significantly all aspects of quality of life of patients with refractory epilepsy. This makes the timely diagnosis and treatment of the disease absolute necessity.
Department of Neurology, Medical University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Ekaterina I
EI
Viteva
Zahari I
ZI
Zahariev
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires