Psychological Distress Among Iranian Patients With Epilepsy During COVID-19 Pandemic

During Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, patients with epilepsy (PWE) have faced with delayed outpatient visits, cancellation of their para-clinic tests, and problems in accessing to emergencies. Regarding to the previous studies, PWE are at increased risk of psychological disorders than healthy persons.

This study aimed to compare psychological distress between PWE and a healthy control group.

This study was performed in the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Mashhad, Iran. We evaluated 132 PWE who consecutively referred to the Neurology Clinics of 22 Bahman Hospital. Also, 132 age and sex matched-healthy persons were included as the control group. Demographic and epilepsy related-data were collected through a questionnaire. The 6-item Kessler questionnaire was used to assess psychological distress.

The included PWE and the control groups were similar among all demographic variables, unless monthly income. We found that PWE had significantly higher psychological distress level (P=0.03) and spent significantly more time following the COVID-19-related news (P=0.000). By using ANCOVA test we found that PWE have significant higher levels of concerns about COVID-19 (P=0.03) and spend more time following COVID-19-related news (P=0.04). Logistic regression revealed that PWE 1.124 times more concern about COVID-19 outbreak and 0.294 time pay less attention to COVID-19 related news.

During public health emergencies, health care professionals should focus not only on seizure control but also on the mental health status of PWE, particularly those with higher number of seizures.