Abstract
Introduction: Depression is a common comorbidity of epilepsy that is under-recognized and under-diagnosed. To improve recognition, a brief screening tool, the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory-Epilepsy-Youth (NDDI-E-Y) was implemented in a level-IV pediatric epilepsy clinic. Method: This quality improvement is a pre-post design measuring the impact of standardized depression screening, via the NDDI-E-Y tool, in youth 12-17 years with epilepsy. Those with positive screens, scores > 32, received social work evaluation and mental health resources. Education was provided to all patients in standard discharge paperwork. Results: Of N = 176 patients evaluated, n = 112 met criteria to complete the NDDI-E-Y. Fifteen percent (n = 17) of patients had positive screens, suggesting that they are at risk for depression. Discussion: Depression is a challenge when managing patients with epilepsy and may impact their quality of life and seizure control. Routine depression screening is recommended and feasible in the outpatient setting with a standardized work process.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 47-53 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Pediatric Health Care |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2020 |
Keywords
- Epilepsy
- depression
- pediatric epilepsy
- quality improvement
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health