Abstract:

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most known neurological disorders which is characterized by recurrent seizures. It can be related with undesirable physical, social, and psychological consequences. The presence of depression among PWE can be associated with different psychological difficulties on patients’ life such as poor treatment adherence, poor quality of life, unemployment, lower educational status, increased burden and cost on healthcare services and higher risk for suicide. Even though many studies from the Western world have reported the prevalence of depression among PWE and its negative consequences, few studies have addressed the issue in Sub-Saharan Countries.

Generally, there is limited information about the magnitude of depression among PWE in Tanzania, particularly Mwanza. Therefore this study aim to determine the prevalence of depression and associated factors among epileptic patients at Bugando Medical Centre and Sengerema District hospital, Mwanza.

Methodology: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was carried out. Data was collected by using questionnaire and analysed by SPSS. Whereby people with epilepsy were involved in a study attending at BMC and Sengerema district hospital.

Results: A total of 195 people were enrolled in a study. The results revealed that 88.2% of participants living with epilepsy had prevalence of depression and its associated factors such as suicide thoughts, sinful feelings, poor treatment adherence, and loss of appetite, difficulty to concentrate or make decision, problem in appetite, depressed mood, and disturbance in sleep patterns. From the total of 195 respondents the majority (62.7%) of them reported that the age of onset for the illness was between 10-25 years. About 43% of them experienced seizure between 1 up to 3 years. While 49.8% of them reported that they are facing stigma as a consequence of their illness.

Conclusion: This study revealed that prevalence of depression among people living with epilepsy is high both at Bugando Medical Centre and Sengerema District Hospital. This may be attributed to poor adherence to treatment of epilepsy. Perceived stigma, educational status, residence, frequency of seizure and social support were significantly associated with depression status. Thus, health care workers better give more emphasis to patients with perceived stigma, higher number of seizure frequency and to those with poor level of social support.