Neuropsychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with new-onset epilepsy

Abstract Background Neuropsychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with new-onset epilepsy in our university hospitals has not been assessed, so the purpose of this study was to identify the neuropsychiatric comorbidities in adult patients with new onset epilepsy in our university hospitals. We recruited one hundred patients, assessed them clinically, radiologically, electrophysiologically, and we performed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale (LSSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale, Beck’s Depression Inventory II (BDI II) and Quality of Life In Epilepsy-10 Questionnaire (QOLIE-10) to assess cognitive function, seizure severity, anxiety, depression, and quality of life of the patients, respectively. Results Older adult age group had higher LSSS than other groups. Middle-aged adults’ group had higher WAIS-IV full scale Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score and lower GAD-7 scale scores than other age groups. Patients regularly on more than one anti-seizure medication had lower IQ results, more seizure severity, depression, anxiety and worse quality of life than those on monotherapy. Males had slightly higher IQ scores. Patients with moderate and severe BDI-II score had significantly higher rate of uncontrolled seizures, higher seizures’ frequency, more abnormal EEG and were regularly on valproate at significantly higher rates as compared to those with minimal BDI-II score. Patients with moderate anxiety were significantly older than those with normal and severe anxiety. Patients with severe anxiety had higher rate of family history of epilepsy, higher rates of uncontrolled seizures and higher seizures’ frequency as compared to those with mild and moderate anxiety. Patients with mild, moderate, and severe score on GAD-7 had more abnormal EEG as compared to those with normal GAD-7 score. Patients with severe and very severe seizures had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression and impaired quality of life than those with mild and moderate seizure severity. Conclusions Most patients with epilepsy had psychiatric comorbidities such as depression and anxiety which strongly reduce their quality of life and interfere with their compliance to anti-seizure medication. Males had slightly higher Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores on WAIS-IV. Moreover, patients regularly taking more than one anti-seizure medication had a statistically significantly lower IQ score, more seizure severity, higher Beckʼs depression inventory II score, higher generalized anxiety disorder 7-item scale score, and worse quality of life than those on monotherapy.