Seo JG, et al. – For this research, the physicians examined the degree of apathy and its clinical significances in people with epilepsy (PWE). In PWE, duration of antiepileptic drug (AED) intake appeared to be a critical factor for apathy regardless of comorbid depression.

• For this study, adult PWE who had been administered antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for at least 1 year were invited.
• The physicians compared them with age- and gender-matched healthy controls.
• Eligible participants completed several questionnaires including the Apathy Evaluation Scale-Self (AES-S), the Korean version of the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (K-NDDI-E), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the Quality of Life in Epilepsy-10 (QOLIE-10).
• They examined the degree of interictal apathy in PWE compared with controls and identified its predictors.
• Furthermore, they measured the effect of apathy on patients’ QOL.

• In this study, the mean overall AES-S score in PWE was comparable to that of controls.
• However, in patients with uncontrolled epilepsy, the score was significantly higher than controls (p < 0.01).
• The mean behavioral score was significantly higher in PWE than controls (p < 0.01) among subscale scores of the AES-S.
• By univariate analyses, factors associated with the overall AES-S score were education level, employment, household income, disease duration, AED-related factors, seizure control, and scores of the K-NDDI-E, GAD-7, ESS, and ISI.
• However, major predictors were the K-NDDI-E (β = 0.476, p < 0.001) and duration of AED intake (β = 0.151, p < 0.01).
• In patients receiving AEDs for 20 years or more, the degree of apathy was significantly higher than those receiving AEDs for 1-9 years (p < 0.01).
• As per the outcomes, the overall AES-S score was inversely associated with the overall QOLIE-10 score (p < 0.001).