A survey of depressive symptoms in patients

Epilepsy is the most prevalent chronic nervous disease among general population prevalence of depression among these patients is twice that of individuals suffering from other disabling diseases. However, depression is often undiagnosed in these patients or treated partially, leading to serious consequences. The present study was designed to asses the prevalence of depressive symptoms and risk factors related to depression in epileptic patients,

The present study is a descriptive research. 97 epileptic patients referred to the hospitals affiliated with the Shaheed Beheshti University were evaluated by Beck Inventory and a demographic questionnaire.

Beck inventory revealed that 51.6% of epileptic patients, (with generalized tonic clonic epilepsy), suffered from mild and moderate depression. There was a significant relation between depression and the following variables: occupation, educational level, economic status and residential place (p<0.05).

Our findings suggested a high rate of depressive symptoms among epileptic patients most of them had not received optimal treatment. Considering the fact that depression is amenable to treatment, screening and timely diagnose is useful and important.