Abstracts

Rationale: In Chile the prevalence of mood disorders in adolescents is 7%, and the international prevalence of depression in adolescents with epilepsy reaches 23-33%. There are no national studies on the prevalence of depression in adolescents with epilepsy, which affect the integrated management, including academic and social support. The objective of this research is to quantify the prevalence of depressive symptoms (DS) in adolescents with epilepsy and describing clinical factors to understand the Chilean reality in this groupMethods: Descriptive transversal study. Adolescents patients between 10 - 15 years old with epilepsy from Child Neurology Unit of Hospital San Juan de Dios were recruited from December 2014 to May 2015. Cases with cognitive impairment or other psychiatric disorder were excluded. In order to screen DS we used: Children´s Depression Inventory (CDI) and Birleson´s Childhood Depression Screening Questionnaire, both validated in Chile for people without intellectual disabilities. Epidemiological, socioeconomic and clinical data were recorded. The following factors were analyzed: age, duration of epilepsy, gender, special school needs, etiology, drug therapy, type of seizures and epilepsy refractoriness. A form of consent was used. The data were entered into Excel and data analysis was performed using SPSS version 19.0. All cases with DS were referred for psychiatric care. The study was approved by an ethics committeeResults: From 265 adolescent patients with epilepsy regularly controlled, 131 (49,4%) were randomly selected. Of the 131 patients, 88 were discarded. The diagnosis of cognitive deficit was the most common exclusion criteria (78). Results of 43 patients (22 women) were analyzed. Ten patients (23,2%) had DS, 6 women and 4 men. Of these, 9 cases had controlled epilepsy. From 33 (87,8%) patients without DS, 29 had controlled epilepsy. The time evolution of epilepsy in patients with and without DS averaged 40,8 and 45 month respectively. There was no association between the quantity and type of drugs used in both analyzed groups. Regarding etiology of epilepsy, 20% of patients with DS had structural causes, while only 6% of patients without DS have this etiology. As for schooling, patients with DS had a higher number of special educational needs (50%) compared to patients without DS (20%)Conclusions: The number of adolescents with epilepsy that have DS is consistent with international statistics, and exceeds the national estimates for this disorder in general adolescent population. There was no association with evolution time, type of seizures or drug used. There was an association with learning difficulties and special educational needs. It is evident the need to incorporate in medical follow up appropriate forms of research in order to detect timely and treat DS that can affect adolescents development. Adolescents with epilepsy, with and without intellectual deficits should be evaluated objectively with adequate strategies and tools for recognize DS