Dermatology & Plastic Surgery Institute Outcomes
Epilepsy
Adult Epilepsy: Effect of Treatment on Mood
Mood disorders, especially depression, are common in patients with epilepsy. The Epilepsy Center routinely screens for depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to identify and treat depression as soon as possible, using primary care depression treatment guidelines.¹ Early identification and treatment should result in improvement in patients’ care, given the significant effect of depression on quality of life.
Change in Depressive Symptoms in Adult Epilepsy Patients
2008 – 2022
For patients with at least moderate depressive symptoms (defined as PHQ-9 scores ≥ 10), a clinically meaningful improvement was seen in 59% of the medical group and 58% of the surgical group.
Clinically meaningful change was defined as a total point change of ≥ 5 points.¹
Mean duration of follow-up was 1996 days (range, 180-5326 days) in the medical group and 1202 days (range, 181-5034 days) in the surgical group.
Change in Global Mental Health in Adult Epilepsy Patients
2014 – 2022
Medical Patients (N = 3257)
6893 medically treated patients had at least 2 visits with PROMIS-10 Mental Health data available for analysis. Among those patients whose baseline PROMIS-10 Mental Health score ≤ 45 (N = 3257), 33.7% (N = 1099) showed improvement, 51.2% (N = 1669) remained stable, and 15% (N = 489) worsened. Median duration of follow-up was 1282 days (range, 180-2976 days).
Surgical Patients (N = 129)
212 surgical patients had a presurgery visit and postsurgery visit with PROMIS-10 Mental Health data available for analysis. Among those patients whose baseline PROMIS-10 Mental Health score ≤ 45 (N = 129), 36.4% (N = 47) showed improvement, 45% (N = 58) remained stable, and 18.6% (N = 24) worsened. Median duration of follow-up was 799 days (range, 188-2570 days). Clinically meaningful change was defined as a 5-point change in T-score, based on one-half the standard deviation.²
