The detection of mood and anxiety in people with epilepsy using two-phase designs: Experiences from a tertiary care centre in Oman

Background: The detection of mood and anxiety disorders is of great clinical importance in patients with chronic disease but data on the occurrence of affective dysfunction is lacking among people with epilepsy (PWE) in non-western populations. Further compounding such situation, the validity of some of the common assessment measures has not been examined. Objective: The study aims to investigate the application of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) by identifying patients with comorbid affective dysfunctions in an Omani population. The semi structured interview, Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) will be used to establish the psychometric property of HADS in the Omani population. Methods: PWE (n= 150) were screened with the semi-structured, (CIDI) and the HADS. A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was calculated to discriminate the power of the HADS for every possible threshold score. Results: The semi-structured interview revealed the prevalence rate of 27% for depressive disorder and 45% for anxiety disorder. The best compromise using, the cut-off score of 7 or 8, gave a sensitivity of 99% for depression and 83-91% for anxiety and a specificity of 87.5-100% for depression and 85-94% for anxiety. Conclusions: Findings suggest that HADS is a useful screening tool for this particular population. This finding is discussed from the socio-cultural perspective of Omani society.