The comorbidity of epilepsy and depression: diagnosis and treatment

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Depression can seriously affect the quality of life of epileptic patients and can even lead to suicide. Understanding the regularity, prevention and treatment of depression in patients with epilepsy (PWE) contributes to the improvement of their quality of life.

Areas covered: In this paper, we retrospectively analyzed the relevant literature on the pathogenesis, related factors, clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of depression in PWE. A literature search utilized the PubMed, Embase and Google Scholar databases.

Expert commentary: PWE often have depression, which can be the result of seizures, antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) or social-demographic factors. It needs to be better understood, and the diagnosis should be more comprehensive for early treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Epilepsy
• depression
• comorbidity
• diagnosis
• treatment
• vigabatrin
• topiramate
• levetiracetam

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81271445, 81501122). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.