Psychiatric Comorbidities Among Epileptic Patients Attending the Mathari Outreach Psychiatric Clinic in Kariobangi, Nairobi County

Abstract

Introduction: It is appreciated that due to a number of factors related to the mechanism of the epilepsy and behavioral disorders, such as common neuropathology, developmental disturbances, effects of ictal neurophysiology and inhibition of hypometabolism surrounding the epileptic focus among others, it is not uncommon to find epileptic patients also suffering from a psychiatric disorder or a behavioral problem (Fahad & Cavazoz, 2016).The primary concern however is that, since it is neurological and patients tend to exhibit symptoms that could be synonymous to a psychiatric illness in our clinical settings in Kenya, the psychiatric co-morbidities are or could be overlooked. Study objective: Therefore this study seeks to assess psychiatric comobordities among epileptic patients attending the Mathari outreach psychiatric clinic in Kariobangi, Nairobi County. Research Design: The study will adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design Study Site: The research was carried out at the Mathari outreach psychiatric clinic in Kariobangi, Nairobi County. Target Population: The study targeted adult epileptic patients at the Mathari outreach psychiatric clinic in Kariobangi, who have been diagnosed with epilepsy Sample size: Convinience sampling was used to get 144 respondents. Research Instruments: A researcher- designed questionnaire and the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview were used and data analysis: Data analysis will be done using SPSS version 23. Findings: The prevalence of the psychiatric comorbidities was 79.2%. Most of the respondents were suffering from affective disorders. 43.8% were having depression or depression with melancholic feelings. Suicidality was also found to be a prevalent comorbidity. Conclusion: Clearly, the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities among epileptic patients in Kenya is high. Psychiatric conditions including mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders, are common among this population. Gender, education levels and employment situation were found to be associated with psychiatric comorbidities in epileptic patients.