Depression and Epilepsy

Posted on January 30, 2009
Filed Under Physicology |

Several studies suggest that depression occurs more frequently than expected among patients diagnosed with epilepsy. It has been shown that major depression increases the risk of developing epilepsy, but previous studies have not assessed whether this is due to specific symptoms of depression.

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Some studies of causes of death among patients with epilepsy suggest that suicide may occur in them more frequently than expected in the general population. These observations suggest that the idea of suicide and attempted suicide are also risk factors for seizures not caused by introducing other agents or factors. To verify these findings, the authors of the study on depression and suicide attempt as risk factors for developing seizures caused not accidental, analyzed populations of Icelandic children and adults with unprovoked seizures and newly diagnosed epilepsy to examine whether depression was associated with greater an increased risk of developing unprovoked seizures, and if they had specific symptoms of major depression for this risk.

It was found that the cases, ie those patients evaluated had a history of major depression nearly 2 times more frequently than controls, ie persons who did not have epilepsy. In the same way, cases had a history of attempted suicide 5 times more frequently than controls. The attempted suicide increased the risk of seizures even after adjusting the data by age, sex, alcohol consumption and major depression or number of symptoms of depression. Major depression and attempted suicide increased the risk of unprovoked seizures in an independent manner.

The authors conclude that their data suggest that depression and attempted suicide may be due to different underlying petrochemical mechanisms or pathways, each of which is important in the development of epilepsy.

Patients with epilepsy should be evaluated closely to prevent suicide attempts and the occurrence of major depression.

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