title: Anxiety in epileptic patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety may occur as ictal, postictal or interictal symptom in patients with epilepsy. The main aim of this research was to explore the intensity and frequency of anxiety in patients with generalized, temporal and extratemporal epilepsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional study of three groups of patients with epilepsy (30 patients per group) - recently diagnosed with generalized epilepsy, temporal epilepsy and extratemporal epilepsy, and a healthy control group (N=30). The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used for quantitative assessment of anxiety.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with temporal and extratemporal epilepsies had a significantly higher mean total scores on the BAI than the patients with generalized forms of epilepsies (ANOVA: F=6.323, p<0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the temporal and extratemporal epilepsy groups according to the levels of anxiety on BAI (t-test: t=1.68, p>0.05). For the first three symptoms - numbness, wobbling in the legs and the fear of the worst happening - the group of patients with extratemporal epilepsies had significantly higher average levels of intensity and frequency of symptoms (ANOVA: F1=5.591, F2=6.555, F3=5.906; p<0.01)
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with partial epilepsy have more frequent and prominent anxiety symptoms than patients with generalized epilepsy, and also more than the control group. All these findings clearly indicate the necessity to modify treatment strategies accordingly in order to include both the antiepileptic therapy and treatment for anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: Special Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Milutin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nenadović
authors.forename: Miroslava
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jašović-Gašić
authors.forename: Sreten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vićentić
authors.forename: Nenad
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nenadović
authors.forename: Periša
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simonović
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult