Predicting Psychological Well-being and Assessing Depression Severity in Adolescents with Epilepsy Using Cognitive Control Performance
Abstract number :
3.38
Submission category :
6. Cormorbidity (Somatic and Psychiatric)
Year :
2024
Submission ID :
447
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/9/2024 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Kaitlin Killian, BS – The University of Texas at Arlington
F. Kathryn King, MS – Cook Childrens Medical Center, UT Arlington
M. Scott Perry, MD – Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health, Neurosciences Center, Cook Children's Medical Center
Christos Papadelis, PhD – Cook Children's Health Care System
Tracy Greer, PhD, MSCS – The University of Texas at Arlington
Crystal Cooper, PhD – Cook Children's Health Care System
Rationale: Epilepsy is often co-morbid with depression, which can significantly impact cognition and vice versa. More positive psychology markers of quality of life (QoL), social functioning, and general well-being are also impacted in epilepsy, but the role of cognition is less understood. Cognitive control as assessed by the Flanker Interference Task (FIT) is a simple and potential measure for predicting psychological well-being in epilepsy due to its established use in depression pathology and treatment prediction. Here, we predicted associated QoL, social functioning, and well-being using the FIT in typically developing controls (TD), and adolescents with epilepsy (EPI). Further, we predicted that EPI with FIT performance like that of TD (ETD) would differ in their psychological well-being compared to EPI outside of the TD range (EPI+).
Methods: TD (n=25) and EPI (n=25 [ETD=9 and EPI+=17]) adolescents (aged 10-20; 28 females) completed the FIT and clinical assessments. FIT assesses cognitive control via inhibition. Clinical scales were the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-Item (PHQ9) to assess depression severity, the Pediatric Quality of Life and Satisfaction Questionnaire to assess life satisfaction, the Social Adjustment Scale Self-Report to assess social functioning, and the World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index (WHO5) to assess psychological level of general well-being. The ability of cognitive control to predict well-being was calculated with a linear regression. Post-hoc ANOVAs were performed on regression predictors and PHQ9 for TD and EPI, with EPI sub-grouped based on ‘TD-LIKE” performance (ETD; i.e., EPI FIT data within 1 SD of the TD mean) or EPI (EPI+; i.e., outside TD FIT range). Fishers Least Significant Difference was used to correct for multiple comparisons. The relationship between well-being regression predictors and depression was also assessed using Pearson Correlation. See Fig. 1.
Results: FIT performance predicted well-being (WHO5 scores; r2=.251, p< .05), but it did not predict QoL or social functioning (all p>.05). Division of the EPI group based on ‘TD-LIKE’ FIT performance, showed that EPI+ have significantly lower well-being scores (p< .05) and higher depression (p< .05) relative to TD. Overall, TD and ETD showed ‘none-mild’ symptoms levels of depression, while EPI+ showed ‘mild-moderate’ symptom levels. As expected, well-being and depression are negatively correlated in the sample, but driven by TD and EPI+ (p< .05). See Fig. 2.
Conclusions: Cognitive control significantly predicted general well-being, indicating a relationship between cognitive control and psychological health. Adolescents with epilepsy who displayed cognitive control performance similar to their typically developing peers exhibited higher levels of well-being, and lower depressive symptoms. While cognitive control performance showed associations with psychological health, no significant relationship was found between cognitive control and life satisfaction or social functioning, suggesting more work is needed.
Funding: Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation
Cormorbidity (Somatic and Psychiatric)