Adolescents

Despite the relatively frequent co-morbidity of depression and epilepsy and its negative consequences on the child’ quality of life, they are under-diagnosed and often go untreated. To explore the prevalence of depression among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years and its possible determinants among them. A cross sectional study was carried out among epileptic adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years, of both sexes attended the Neurology clinics at Alhada Military Hospital, Taif city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia throughout 2016. Those with psychiatric history or on antidepressant medications were excluded from the study. The data were collected through an interview questionnaire including demographic characteristics of patients and epilepsy-related characteristics. Patients were identified by their medical record numbers. The patients` files were reviewed to complete their information required for the study through a checklist. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used for diagnosis of depression among the patients. The study included 84 patient with epilepsy. Their age ranged between 12 and 18 years with a mean of 15.5 years and SD of ±2.7 years. They were equally distributed regarding gender. Depression was reported among 89% of patients; it was mostly mild (43.9%) and moderate (30.5%). Moderately severe and severe forms were observed among 8.5% and 6.1% of patients, respectively. Most patients who had complications (80%) compared to 37.3% of those who hadn`t complications expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.003. Also 73.3% of patients who didn`t show improvement with therapy compared to 37.7% of those showed improvement expressed moderate to severe depression, p=0.006. Other factors (demographic and epilepsy-related) were not significantly associated with depression and its severity among epileptic adolescents. Depression is a common psychological disorder among epileptic adolescents. It is more significantly reported among those with complications and not improved on medical therapy. Care should be paid to early diagnosis and proper management of depression among this population.