Original scientific paper

ANXIETY IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS

Milutin Nenadović ; Special Psychiatric Hospital Laza Lazarevic, Belgrade, Serbia
Miroslava Jašović-Gašić ; Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Clinic for Psychiatry, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Sreten Vićentić ; Department of Psychiatry, General Hospital, Sabac, Serbia
Nenad Nenadović ; Military Medical Academy, Belgrade, Serbia
Periša Simonović ; Institute of Mental Health, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

Background: Anxiety may occur as ictal, postictal or interictal symptom in patients with epilepsy. The main aim of this research
was to explore the intensity and frequency of anxiety in patients with generalized, temporal and extratemporal epilepsy.
Subjects and methods: This is a cross-sectional study of three groups of patients with epilepsy (30 patients per group) - recently
diagnosed with generalized epilepsy, temporal epilepsy and extratemporal epilepsy, and a healthy control group (N=30). The Beck
Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used for quantitative assessment of anxiety.
Results: Patients with temporal and extratemporal epilepsies had a significantly higher mean total scores on the BAI than the
patients with generalized forms of epilepsies (ANOVA: F=6.323, p<0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between
the temporal and extratemporal epilepsy groups according to the levels of anxiety on BAI (t-test: t=1.68, p>0.05). For the first three
symptoms - numbness, wobbling in the legs and the fear of the worst happening - the group of patients with extratemporal epilepsies
had significantly higher average levels of intensity and frequency of symptoms (ANOVA: F1=5.591, F2= 6.555, F3=5.906; p<0.01)
Conclusions: Patients with partial epilepsy have more frequent and prominent anxiety symptoms than patients with generalized
epilepsy, and also more than the control group. All these findings clearly indicate the necessity to modify treatment strategies
accordingly in order to include both the antiepileptic therapy and treatment for anxiety disorders.

Keywords

anxiety; temporal epilepsies; extratemporal epilepsies; generalized epilepsies

Hrčak ID:

76828

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/76828

Publication date:

30.9.2011.

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