Neurological 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 – 2023
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 56% of the surgical group.
Clinically meaningful change was defined as a total point change of ≥ 5 points.¹
Mean duration of follow-up was 1922 days (range, 180-5703 days) in the medical group and 1473 days (range, 181-5104 days) in the surgical group.
Change in Global Mental Health in Adult Epilepsy Patients
2014 – 2023
Medical Patients (N = 7864)
7864 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 = 3761), 35% (N = 1318) showed improvement, 50.8% (N = 1909) remained stable, and 14.2% (N = 534) worsened.
Median duration of follow-up was 1336 days (range, 180-3347 days).
Surgical Patients (N = 291)
291 surgical patients had a pre-surgery visit and post-surgery visit with PROMIS-10 Mental Health data available for analysis. Among those patients whose baseline PROMIS-10 Mental Health score ≤ 45 (N = 177), 39% (N = 69) showed improvement, 48% (N = 85) remained stable, and 13% (N = 23) worsened.
Median duration of follow-up was 1135 days (range, 188-2625 days).
Clinically meaningful change was defined as a 5-point change in T-score, based on one-half the standard deviation.²
