Personal Health-care Management and Depression among Patients with Epilepsy

Background: Epilepsy is a long-term brain condition that causes seizures. Depression is an important psychiatric comorbidity among individuals with epilepsy. In health care, recent devices such as wearable seizure detectors, smart medication reminders, mobile health applications, and remote monitoring systems have shown promise in enhancing disease management. These technologies can support continuous patient monitoring while reducing the burden of frequent hospital visits. Objective: The main objective of this study is to assess the personal healthcare management alongside depression among patients with epilepsy. Methods and materials: A total of 92 patients with epilepsy, were selected based on inclusion criteria. In a tertiary care facility, a cross-sectional study was carried out in Chennai. Patients were interviewed face-to-face using interview schedule which consists of four sections. SPSS used for statistical analysis. Results: The findings indicate that among the clinical variables examined, duration of disease, family history of epilepsy, and the last seizure episode were the factor significantly associated with depression severity, while presence of comorbidities showed no statistically significant associations. findings suggest that while participants are relatively familiar with commonly used wearable safety and monitoring devices, awareness of more specialized and advanced IoMT technologies remains poor. Conclusion: The findings highlight the patients’ educational interventions and utilization of IoMT devices in epilepsy personal health care management.