Major depressive episode, cognition, and epilepsy

- We studied the occurrence of major depressive episode using the NDDI-E in 200 PWE.
- NDDI-E is a potential screening instrument for depression.
- Major depressive episode is associated with seizure frequency and quality of life.
- Major depressive episode is also associated with the category fluency test.
- NDDI-E should alert for concurrent cognitive deficits.

PurposeIn patients with epilepsy (PWE), relationships between depression, epilepsy characteristics, and cognitive aspects are complex. This study aimed to assess the occurrence of possible major depressive episode in PWE and to verify whether it is associated with the clinical aspects of the disease and cognition.MethodsTwo hundred consecutive PWE with a mean age and standard deviation of 47.6 (± 15.1) years were included in the study. We determined whether their Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) scores were associated with their clinical, cognitive, and QOLIE-31 aspects using a significance level of 5% (p < 0.05).ResultsTwenty-six patients (13%) had an NDDI-E score > 15, suggestive of major depressive episode. Logistic regression showed that NDDI-E > 15 was associated with seizure frequency (p = 0.022) and worse performance in the category fluency test (p = 0.003). An NDDI-E > 15 was also correlated with lower quality of life (p < 0.001).ConclusionThe present findings suggest that possible major depressive episode is associated not only with epilepsy characteristics but also with cognitive aspects, such as category fluency, and quality of life.