Gessessew Teklebrhan, Bizuneh Tesfaye, Asrat Chaka, Yodit Habtamu
Anatolian Journal of Mental Health - 2025;2(2):1-22
Introduction: Depression and anxiety are the most common mental illness, but both are frequently unrecognized and unmanaged among patients with epilepsy. Objective: To assess magnitude of anxiety, depression and associated factors among patients with epilepsy in Ethiopia, 2018. Methods: An institution based cross - sectional study design was conducted from May 15 to June 24, 2018. Depression and anxiety were measured by using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: A total of 416 study participants were interviewed with 99.3% response rate and 59.6% of study participants were male. The mean age of the study participants was 33.19 +/-13.66 years. The prevalence of depression and anxiety among people with epilepsy was 3 7.7 % and 39.9 %, respectively. Depression was associated with poor social support, low monthly income, perceived stigma, medication non -adherence, side effects of AEDs and current use of alcohol. Anxiety was associated with poor social support, p erceived stigma, medication non -adherence, >= 4 times frequency of seizure attacks per months, and side effects of AEDs. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression and anxiety among people with epilepsy was high. Both depression and anxiety had a statistically significant association with perceived stigma, AEDs side effects, medication non -adherence, and social support.
