ILAE clinical practice recommendations for the medical treatment of depression in adults with epilepsy.
Mula M, Brodie MJ, de Toffol B, Guekht A, Hecimovic H, Kanemoto K, Kanner AM, Teixeira AL, Wilson SJ.
Epilepsia. 2022 Feb;63(2):316-334
https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.17140
Hot Off The Press – The first set of evidence based recommendations for the treatment of comorbid #depression in adults with #epilepsy was published by the International League Against Epilepsy (#ILAE) in Epilepsia on December 5th.
These novel guidelines were developed by a formal adaptation process of existing clinical praxis guidelines for the treatment of depression in non-epilepsy patients and was further supported by a systematic literature review (n= 26 publications) of publications on the treatment of comorbid depression in adults with epilepsy.
The new guidelines recommend selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (#SSRI) and #Venlafaxine as the first- and second-line pharmacotherapy respectively, for the treatment of mild-severe comorbid depressive episodes in adults with epilepsy. However, in pharmacoresistant patients, vagus nerve stimulation (#VNS), repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (#rTMS) or electroconvulsive therapy (#ECT) may be viable treatment options.