The effect of epilepsy on anxiety, depression, as well as prognostic value among adult low-grade gliomas patients

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy, anxiety and depression are frequently discussed in patients with gliomas, but limited study focused on adult low-grade gliomas (LGG) patients with epilepsy. Hence, this study aimed to compare the prevalence of anxiety and depression in adult LGG patients with epilepsy and without epilepsy, and investigate the prognostic value of epilepsy before surgery in these patients.

Methods: A prospective study of 96 adult LGG patients with epilepsy, and 151 adult LGG patients without epilepsy were enrolled to measure anxiety and depression before surgery, 6 months after surgery, 12 months after surgery. All these patients were followed up to death or 36 months.

Results: We found that the prevalence of preoperative anxiety in adult LGG patients with epilepsy was 62.5% to 63.5%, which was higher than the prevalence of preoperative anxiety in adult LGG patients without epilepsy, which was 45.7% to 47.7%. The prevalence of preoperative depression in adult LGG patients with epilepsy was 61.5% to 62.5%, which was much higher than 47.7% to 48.3% in non-epileptic patients. We found no differences in postoperative anxiety between patients with epilepsy and without epilepsy. Epilepsy before surgery was associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS) in adult LGG patients.

Conclusion: This study indicated that the prevalence of anxiety and depression were higher in adult LGG patients with epilepsy than without epilepsy. The prognostic value of epilepsy may contribute to early prevention and improvement of prognosis in adult LGG patients with epilepsy.

Keywords: Adult; Anxiety; Depression; Epilepsy; Low-grade glioma; PFS.