Suicide risk and associated risk factors in adult patients with epilepsy

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationships of suicide risk and its associated risk factors in adult patients with epilepsy. Methods All 211 adult patients with epilepsy from the epilepsy clinic of the Second Affiliated Hospital,Zhejiang University School of Medicine,were enrolled to evaluate the presence of suicide risk and depressive disorder by using the suicide module and the depressive disorder module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI).Demographic variables for age,gender,employment status,marital status,years of education,and seizure factors for age of onset,types of seizure,seizure frequency and epilepsy duration,result of MRI and types of antiepileptic drugs were also recorded.We compared the differences of risk factors between the two groups with or without suicide risk and investigated the relationships between the depressive disorder and suicide risk. Results The suicide risk of the patients was 21.3%（45/211）,and 17.1%(36/211) of the patients had depressive disorder.The suicide risk of the epilepsy patients associated with depressive disorder was 75.0%(27/36)，and the suicide risk of the epilepsy patients associated with no depressive disorder was 10.3%（18/175）.There was statistical difference between the two groups（χ2=74.525，P<0.01）.About 60.0%(27/45) of the patients with suicide risk was accompanied with depressive disorder.As suicide risk increased,the proportion of concurrent depressive disorder elevated.There was significant statistical difference in the rates of depressive disorder among the different suicide risk groups. Conclusions The patients with epilepsy have suicide risk.The suicide risk is higher in patients with depressive disorder. Key words: Epilepsy; Suicide; Depressive disorder; Risk factors; Brief psychiatric rating scale