A population based study of epilepsy-associated comorbidities in people with epilepsy in Moscow

Abstract

Epilepsy is associated with high number of somatic and psychiatric comorbidities. There are no published data about association of epilepsy and comorbid conditions in an adult Russian population. We identified co-morbid conditions among the people with active epilepsy (PWE) aged 18 and older who were residents of two districts of Moscow (427 000 inhabitants). Data was collected from the Moscow “Unified medical information and analytical system data” and by telephone survey. Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests and one-way ANOVA were used for group comparisons. 1317 (646 males) PWE with average age 48.1±18.3 years were identified. The mean number of comorbidities for the entire group was 2.65±2.25 and increased from 1.34 ± 0.17 (18-25 age group) to 4.52 ± 0.25 (80 and older). No association between the number of comorbidities and gender or of duration of epilepsy was found. Women with epilepsy more often suffered from obesity (p=0.0280) and thyroid conditions (p=0.0000) than men with epilepsy. Focal epilepsies were more frequently associated with psychiatric comorbidities (p=0.0001), arterial hypertension (p=0.0000), heart disease (p=0.0000), stroke and transient ischemic attacks (p=0.0119). A high seizure frequency was associated with psychiatric comorbidity and insomnia (p=0.0000). Psychiatric comorbidities (p=0.0000), insomnia (p=0.0029) and cancer (p=0.0326) were significantly less prevalent in PWE in remission. This population-based study reviewed the association of epilepsy with psychiatric and the number of somatic comorbidities in adult Russian population. Number of comorbidities was higher in elderly PWE and patients with focal epilepsy. PWE in remission had significantly fewer of comorbidities.