Depression rate among 18-40-year-old patients suffering from generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy referred to Neurology Clinics in an Iranian Hospital.

E pilepsy is the most prevalent chronic CNS disorder in the general population. Approximately 45 million people are epileptic throughout the world. The prevalence of depression among these patients is twice more than individuals suffering from other non diagnosed or partially treated disabling conditions. 1 If such a consequence of epilepsy is not treated, it could bring other consequences, such as failure in therapy, poor quality of life, and social handicaps with higher morbidity and mortality. 2 In this study, the prevalence of epilepsy, as well as the related risk factors, were studied using the Beck test as a simple screening tool. This was a descriptive convenience study, and it was carried out on people with epilepsy referred to the clinics of Neurology in an Iranian University Hospital during 2004-2005. Ninety-seven patients with documented generalized tonic-clonic seizures according to the history and EEG tracings were enrolled to accomplish the ongoing test. This research was approved by the affiliated university department Ethical Committee, and informed consent was obtained from each of the study participants. Patients younger than 18 and older than 40 years of age, illiterate patients, and patients suffering from other medical or psychiatric disorders as well as individuals with secondary epilepsy were not included in the study. In this study, the Beck questionnaires (with more emphasis on the cognitive and the behavioral aspects) consisting of 21 items of multiple-choice questions with increasing severity of depression (from AD) were given to the patients and they were asked to answer the questions independently (self-report). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is perhaps the best known and widely used self-report measure of depression. We used, in this study, the Persian-language version of the Beck Depression Inventory-second edition (BDI-II) standardized by Ghassemzadeh and his colleagues in Iran. 3 The methodology for the Iranian population so as not to include false positives was used, and the following scores obtained: 0-15 normal, 16-30 mild depression, 31-46 moderate depression, and 47-63 severe depression. The patients had to have at least a 6th grade elementary school education. Since the screening test was independent of socio-cultural factors and not related to any ethnic group, it could well be applied universally and amongst depressed patients. Before completion of the Beck questionnaire another questionnaire with demographic information as well as information regarding duration of the illness, drug history, family history of mood disorder or epilepsy was distributed. In this study, 97 …