Prevalence of depression among epileptic patients in Taif City, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES: To assess depression and its relation with different factors among people with epilepsy in wider range of ages. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Taif city. The sample size was 150; the inclusion criteria were ≥18-year-old patients diagnosed with epilepsy. The data were collected by interviewing patients following up from rural and urban areas of Taif in neurology clinics at King Faisal Medical Complex (KFMC) and King Abdul-Aziz Specialist Hospital (KAASH). The PHQ-9 score was used to screen for depression. RESULTS: Our study showed that approximately 76.7% (n=115) of the patients had some form of depression. A severe form of depression was identified in 8.7% (n=13) of the patients, and a moderately severe form was observed in 13.3% (n=20) of the patients. There was no significant association between depression and gender, duration of epilepsy, type of epilepsy, and medications for epilepsy, while there was a statistical association between depression and age, stress level, and employment status (p<0.044, p<0.001, p<0.008, respectively). CONCLUSION: Depression is common in people with epilepsy. Regular screening for depression is recommended in people with epilepsy for early detection and treatment.

Effect of habits, traditions, and beliefs on seizure diagnosis and provide first aid in Taif city, KSA.

AIM: To determine the effect of habits, traditions, and beliefs on seizure diagnosis and provide first aid in Taif city, KSA. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 297 participants from Taif, KSA. An Arabic self-administrated electronic questionnaire was used that included different parts to collect the information from participants; characters, previous history of seizures, habits, beliefs and traditions about the seizures and first aid. RESULTS: Most of the participants had an average level of knowledge by 20.88, 47.14 and 31.99% of the participants had a poor, average and good level of knowledge about seizures and epilepsy. 70.0% of our participants knew that seizure is a symptom associated with many diseases; 40.7% knew that hypoglycemia can cause a seizure, while 37 and 32.3% did not know seizure treatment and whether Hijama and Cupping therapy were enough to treat seizure; 26.9 and 35.4% of the participants responded by neither putting something hard on the patient's mouth nor opening the patient's mouth by force to protect him from swallowing his tongue, respectively. Only 17.2% agreed on not calling the ambulance for all seizure cases. Participants aged between 20 and 29 and single had a significant higher percent of good knowledge with no significant association between gender, income and educational level and the participant's level of knowledge. CONCLUSION: There is a lack of knowledge and misconceptions about aspects related to seizures among the studied participants. It is recommended to raise awareness and correct false misconceptions about providing first aid to seizure patients.