EP. 4 Understanding Depressive Symptom Assessment in Youth with Epilepsy

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A 2025 multi-site study published in Epilepsy & Behavior aimed to examine depressive symptoms in children and youth with epilepsy (CYE) who completed measures of emotional and behavioral functioning as part of a pre-surgical neuropsychological evaluation. All told, results revealed that CYE are at a higher risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, especially those with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Findings also indicated that other seizure and sociodemographic variables did not increase risk or resilience, calling for depression screening during routine epilepsy care, including for those CYE with low IQ.

To further understand the clinical relevance of these results, NeurologyLive® facilitated a discussion with 3 study authors: Shannon Brothers, PhD, Cortney Wolfe-Christensen, PhD, and Janelle Wagner, PhD. Brothers is a pediatric epilepsy psychologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Wagner is a pediatric psychologist at Medical University of South Carolina, and Wolfe-Christensen is a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Throughout the roundtable, each clinician provided insight regarding the recent publication and its clinical implications.

In this episode, Wolfe-Christensen and Wagner discussed key limitations in current approaches to assessing depressive symptoms in pediatric epilepsy, noting that commonly examined sociodemographic, seizure-related, and surgical variables have not reliably identified children at highest risk. They emphasized that reliance on caregiver-reported measures may fail to capture mood symptoms accurately, particularly in adolescents with typical cognitive functioning who may be better positioned to self-report. The experts also highlighted challenges related to assessing depression in youth with lower intellectual functioning, where developmental limitations can complicate symptom recognition and measurement.

REFERENCES
1. Brothers S., Wolfe-Christensen C., Loblein H., et al. Depressive symptoms in youth with refractory epilepsy: Exploration of seizure, sociodemographic and cognitive factors. Epilepsy & Behavior. 2025;Volume 171:110608. DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2025.110608