Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in patients with epilepsy in a tertiary level care hospital: Detection through the MINI PLUS International Structured Interview

Objective The correlation between epilepsy and psychiatric complications is recognized by medical literature. However, there are reports that establish doubt about this. Therefore, the main intention of this project is to determine the prevalence of associated psychiatric disorders through the application of the MINI- PLUS International Structured Interview in patients with a diagnosis of epilepsy who were being treated in an outpatient setting at the Neurology Outpatient Clinic of a tertiary level care hospital in Northeastern Mexico, during the months of April and May of 2016. Materials and methods We performed a descriptive, cross-sectional study in which patients with a diagnosis of epilepsy, regardless of type or etiology, older than 18 years of age, were included. We excluded those who underwent prior surgery without a known psychiatric diagnosis and without clinical evidence or with a diagnosis of mental retardation, dementia or an established language disorder. Results We were able to record general socio-demographic data, number of currently used antiepileptic drugs, and the type of epileptic seizures, according to the classification of the International League against Epilepsy of 1981. A total of 33 patients was included, since of the 42 detected, two did not agree to participate in the study, four had a diagnosis of mental retardation and three were already under psychiatric treatment for major depressive disorder. The MINI PLUS was fully applied to all of the remaining selected patients. Conclusion Through the application of the MINI PLUS Interview, we found that 12 patients, 36.36% of the sample, presented a psychiatric disorder comorbid to epilepsy.