Chidozie Donald Chukwujekwu
Objective: The study was designed to study the prevalence, patterns and comorbidities of seizure disorders among psychiatric clinic attendees at Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria, over a 7-year period.
Materials and Methods: Case files of all psychiatric patients who attended the psychiatric clinic of Madonna University Teaching Hospital (MUTH) from June 2011 to June 2018 were revived. Records of patients who had a diagnosis of seizure disorder were studied.
Results: A total of 2,283 patients attended the psychiatric clinic within the time frame stated. Out of this, 148 were diagnosed with a seizure disorder, hence giving a prevalence of 6.5%. The largest proportions of the subjects were aged 21-30 years (33.1%), female (54.1%), single (71.6%) and had a secondary education (39.9%). Tonic clinic seizure was the most prevalent seizure type (55.4%). Most of the patients had neither medical (70.3%) nor psychiatric co-morbidity (60.8%). Temporal lobe epilepsy had the highest psychiatric co-morbidity (91.7%) and the most common psychiatric co-morbidity was Depression (16.2%). The association between seizure type and psychiatric co-morbidity was statistically significant (χ2=22.388, df=8, p<0.05).
Conclusion: Tonic-clonic seizure was the most prevalent seizure type seen but those suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy had the highest rate of psychiatric morbidity. Depression was the most common psychiatric co-morbidity among epileptic patients and seizure patients have the tendency to develop another medical condition as they grow older.
