Depression Complicates Epilepsy Treatment
Several studies describe the various negative effects that depression has among people with epilepsy. Investigators in the United Kingdom concluded that people with a lifetime history of depression before epilepsy onset were twice as likely to develop treatment-resistant epilepsy than people without depression before epilepsy onset.
In an Australian study of people with new-onset epilepsy, comorbid symptoms of depression and anxiety at epilepsy diagnosis were associated with a lower likelihood of being seizure-free at 52 weeks of treatment. Research by Dr. Kanner and colleagues found that among patients who became seizure-free after temporal lobectomy, 12% had had a lifetime history of depression. Approximately 80% of people who had resistant seizures after surgery had had a lifetime history of depression.
A multicenter study of people with epilepsy indicated that patients with depression or anxiety were significantly more likely to have a greater number and severity of adverse events from antiepileptic drugs. Other data indicate a high correlation between severity of depression and poor quality of life among individuals with treatment-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. This investigation also found no correlation between seizure frequency and quality of life.
—Erik Greb