Study of psychiatric comorbidities in epilepsy by using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview

•Epilepsy affects both sexes of all age groups & is associated with psychiatric co-morbid conditions.•There is paucity of published data regarding psychiatric co-morbid conditions in epileptic patients from developing countries.•Psychiatric co-morbidities were compared among 80 PWE, 80 with asthma and 80 normal healthy patients using MINI for diagnosing psychiatric disorders.•Psychiatric co-morbid conditions are more common in PWE as compared to the control subjects.•Longer duration & frequency of seizures, AED polypharmacy, poor drug compliance were associated with increased psychiatric co-morbidity.

BackgroundEpilepsy is a neurological condition affecting men and women of all age groups and is associated with psychiatric comorbid conditions. There is a paucity of published data available regarding psychiatric comorbid conditions in patients with epilepsy (PWEs) from developing countries.MethodsWe compared the psychiatric comorbid conditions in 80 PWEs, 80 patients with asthma (asthma control (AC) subjects), and 80 healthy controls (normal control (NC) subjects) using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) for the diagnosis of Axis I psychiatric disorders.ResultsPsychiatric comorbid conditions are more common in PWEs (32.50%) as compared with the AC (17.5%) and NC (7.5%) subjects. Longer duration of seizures, increased frequency of seizures, recent recurrence of seizures, anticonvulsant polypharmacy, poor compliance with medications, and family history of seizures were associated with increased psychiatric comorbidity.ConclusionPatients with epilepsy are more likely to have psychiatric comorbid disorders compared with the other patients with chronic illness or with the healthy controls. It is of immense clinical importance to identify the comorbid psychiatric disorders in PWEs as the treatment of these disorders apart from a good seizure control may significantly improve their quality of life.