Using the hospital anxiety and depression scale in people with epilepsy: Is overlapping symptomatology a problem?

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is designed to screen for anxiety and depression in clinical settings. However, some items on the HADS may reflect symptoms associated with epilepsy and antiseizure medications rather than anxiety and depression. This study examined whether these items on the HADS contributed disproportionately to the reporting of anxiety and depression on the HADS in people with epilepsy (PWE). As part of a routine clinical assessment, 546 adults with epilepsy completed the HADS. In our sample, 56.2% reported elevated levels of anxiety, and 27.3% reported symptoms of depression with a score of 8 or more on the respective subscales. Scores on the anxiety and depression subscales were not associated with age, sex or epilepsy type. We did not find a relationship between endorsement of items related to panic, feelings of dread or butterflies in the stomach and a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. The most frequently endorsed item on the anxiety subscale of the HADS in the sample as a whole related to worrying thoughts, rather than the more somatic manifestations of anxiety. The item 'I feel as if I am slowed down' was endorsed by the majority of people with epilepsy and may not reflect a symptom of depression in this group. Careful analyses of the pattern of endorsement of specific items on the HADS may improve the sensitivity of this screening measure to the presence of depression in people with epilepsy.