Psychiatric symptoms are the strongest predictors of quality of life in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the effect of psychiatric comorbidity and neurocognitive deficits on the quality of life in a cohort of patients admitted for Video-EEG Monitoring (VEM) for investigation into a presumed seizure disorder. METHODS: Patients were recruited from an inpatient VEM unit between January 2009 and December 2016. All patients had formal neuropsychiatric assessment. All patients completed questionnaires assessing psychiatric symptomatology (SCL-90-R), Anxiety and Depression (HADS), quality of life (QOLIE-89), and cognition (NUCOG). RESULTS: A total of 451 patients were enrolled. Upon discharge, 204 patients were diagnosed to have epilepsy, 118 ps..