How Does Depression Affect the Course of Neurologic Disease?

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