Background: The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of symptoms of depression, general anxiety, obsessive compulsive and phobia in interictal phase among patients suffering from epilepsy.
Materials and methods: This cross sectional observational study was performed on 137 outpatients referred to neurology clinic of Imam Hossein hospital in 2004. All patients were in the interictal phase. Demographic and epilepsy variables and a questionnaire including items asking about depression, general anxiety, obsessive compulsive and phobia of SCL-90-R (symptoms check list-90- revised) was completed.
Results: Relative frequency of depression, general anxiety, obsessive compulsive, and phobia was 55.4%, 44.9%, 55.8% and 23.2%, respectively. Phobia symptoms were associated with lower educational level (p=0.029), unemployment (p=0.013) and older age (p=0.013). The symptoms of obsessive compulsive (p=0.041) and general anxiety (p=0.044) were associated with older age. Different psychiatric symptoms were not correlated with sex, amount of drug use, marital status and the duration of the disease or type of epilepsy.
Conclusion: Our findings highlighted that depression and obsessive compulsive symptoms in the first grade and general anxiety and phobia in the second grade are among the causes of morbidity among epileptic patients. Psychiatric symptoms are suspected to be higher in older, unemployed, and less educated epileptic patients. A close cooperation between neurologists and psychiatrists is necessary in the approach to the patients with epilepsies.