Diagnosis And Psychological Interventions Of Depression In Epilepsy: A Review

Lower levels of depression may be seen commonly amongindividuals with epilepsy which is different from patients with depression.The authors referred to this as a ‘‘dysthymic-like disorder of epilepsy’’(DLD E) and “interictal dysphoric disorder”(IDD). However, patientswith epilepsy have a higher incidence of mental disorders exceptdepression (anxiety, phobias, obsessive–compulsive disorder, bipolar andschizophrenia) that should be classified using conventional DSM IV TextRevision and treated appropriately.If depression is caused by general psychological mechanisms on thebackground of epilepsy and stress-related factors, the appropriatetherapeutic response will aim to reduce stress. They involve cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT), behavioral therapy (health behavior training,enhancing self-efficacy intervention, self-management training, relaxationtherapy, bio-feedback), family intervention, psychodramatic therapy.Currently, CBT had been considered an effective treatment for depression.However, there are two problems in psychological interventions. One is research methodology problems, they include lack of more in-depthcorrelations between scale scores and direct measurement of real-lifeadaptation; randomized control trials and too few subjects in these studies.Another is program development. The greatest problem of psychosocialinterventions was that only a handful of these interventions were ever putinto general use and there were a little patients who could keep treatment.