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. 2012 Aug;24(4):426-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.05.005. Epub 2012 Jun 8.

Depression but not seizure factors or quality of life predicts suicidality in epilepsy

H Hecimovic  1 , J M Santos, J Carter, H P Attarian, A J Fessler, V Vahle, F Gilliam
Affiliations

Depression but not seizure factors or quality of life predicts suicidality in epilepsy

H Hecimovic et al. Epilepsy Behav. 2012 Aug.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine prevalence and predictive risk factors of suicidality in a large sample of epilepsy outpatients. We prospectively examined 193 consecutive adult epilepsy outpatients for depression, including suicidal ideation. Demographic and epilepsy factors, medication toxicity and health-related quality of life were also evaluated. The prevalence of suicidal ideation within the past two weeks was 11.9%. Although medication toxicity, health-related quality of life and BDI scores were each associated with suicidal ideation in the bivariate analyses, only the BDI remained significant in the logistic regression analysis. About one-fourth of the subjects with suicidal ideation had no significant symptoms of depression. Recent thoughts of suicide are a common occurrence in the outpatient epilepsy clinic setting, but these are not predicted by gender, age, seizure factors, medication toxicity or self-perceived quality of life. Although depression is associated with suicidal ideation, about one-fourth of the suicidal subjects were euthymic or only mildly depressed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A. Relation of presence of suicidal ideation in epilepsy outpatients without (BDI < 15) and with clinically significant depressive symptoms (BDI ≤ 15). B. Boxplots with median lines and extremes show association of presence (Yes) and absence (No) of suicidal ideation with the BDI total score
Figure 1
Figure 1
A. Relation of presence of suicidal ideation in epilepsy outpatients without (BDI < 15) and with clinically significant depressive symptoms (BDI ≤ 15). B. Boxplots with median lines and extremes show association of presence (Yes) and absence (No) of suicidal ideation with the BDI total score
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