Psychiatric Implications of Anti-seizure Medications in Epileptic Population

Abstract BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Epilepsy is a common neurological complaint that is impacting millions of people worldwide. It's linked with a high frequency of psychiatric comorbidities, which can have a substantial impact on cases' living standards. The objective of this study was to probe the connotation between antiseizure treatments and the risk of psychiatric comorbidities in cases with epilepsy.METHODOLOGY: For this study data was collected from Patients Neurology referral centre in Islamabad, Pakistan. Data was collected from 120 cases with epilepsy using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions about seizure control, anti-seizure drug use, and psychiatric comorbidities. Data was analyzed using the SPSS.RESULTS The results showed that cases who were taking antiseizure drugs had a significantly advanced risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities compared to those who weren't taking these drugs( p = .012). Among the antiseizure drugs, cases taking valproate had an advanced risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities, although this wasn't statistically significant (p = .076). Cases with abnormal MRI findings had an advanced risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities (p = .021).CONCLUSION Our study suggests that cases with epilepsy who are taking antiseizure drugs are at an advanced risk of developing psychiatric comorbidities compared to those who aren't taking these drugs. Thus, close monitoring of cases taking antiseizure drugs for psychiatric comorbidities is recommended.