Depression in Children and Adolescents with Epilepsy: a 15 Year Research Review of Prevalence, and Demographic and Seizure Related Correlates

OBJECTIVE The paper aims to study the prevalence of depression in epileptic children and adolescents by reviewing the existing literature, looking for any association between depression in these children and their demographic or seizure related factors to highlight the potential risk factors for depression in epileptic children. METHODS A search of MEDLINE, NLM Gateway, Ovid and EMBASE was carried out to study original English language articles published during the last 15 years, focusing on only epileptic children and adolescents, studying of depression as comorbidity of epilepsy, and describing demographic and epilepsy-related factors associated with depression. FINDINGS The 11 articles included in this study have reported data on 1095 epileptic children aged 4-19 years old and showed that the prevalence of depression has continued to be very common in epileptic children and adolescents, ranged from 5.2% to 39.6%. On the whole, the findings did not support the presence of an association between depression and demographic or seizure variables in children. CONCLUSION Pediatricians and other physicians working with epileptic children should have a high index of suspicion for depression as a comorbid condition in children with epilepsy. Early diagnosis and more comprehensive packages of care for depression in epileptic children will enable them to have a better quality of life.