Resilience predicts and modulates anxiety severity in people with epilepsy

G Assenza; B M Sancetta; J Lanzone; F Narducci; L Ricci; M Boscarino; A Marrelli; R Ciuffini; M Piccioli; V Di Lazzaro; M Tombini

doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109390

Resilience predicts and modulates anxiety severity in people with epilepsy

Epilepsy Behav. 2023 Oct:147:109390. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109390. Epub 2023 Aug 22.

Authors

G Assenza¹, B M Sancetta², J Lanzone³, F Narducci¹, L Ricci¹, M Boscarino³, A Marrelli⁴, R Ciuffini⁵, M Piccioli⁶, V Di Lazzaro¹, M Tombini¹

Affiliations

¹ UOC Neurologia, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128 Roma, Italy; Research Unit of Neurology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128 Roma, Italy.
² UOC Neurologia, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 200, 00128 Roma, Italy; Research Unit of Neurology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128 Roma, Italy. Electronic address: biagio.sancetta@unicampus.it.
³ Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Neurorehabilitation Department of the Milano Institute, Milan, Italy.
⁴ UOC Neurophysiopathology, Ospedale San Salvatore, L'Aquila, Italy.
⁵ Department of MeSVA, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
⁶ UOC Neurology, PO San Filippo Neri, ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy.

PMID: 37619458
DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109390

Abstract

Background: Anxiety is one of the most relevant psychiatric comorbidities in people with epilepsy (PwE). The role of resilience (RES) in the development of anxiety is not well understood. We purposed to better characterize RES impact on anxiety severity in PwE.

Materials and methods: One hundred and seventy-six PwE underwent online surveys including a collection of socio-demographic, seizure-related, and psychological variables. PwE were grouped according to the data collected; anxiety levels were compared through non-parametric statistics. Hierarchical regression analysis (HRA) and logistic regression were performed to characterize RES contribute in predicting the presence and the severity of anxiety. Mediation/moderation analysis was performed to evaluate causal effects among RES, depression, and anxiety.

Results: Anxiety did not differ according to socio-demographic and seizure-related variables, exemption for the presence of drug-related adverse effects. Depression, RES, and sleep quality provided the major contribute on anxiety variance. The addiction of RES level in HRA and logistic regression provided a significant increase of R-squared value (p-value = 0.02) and of area under the curve (p-value = 0.03), respectively. RES modulated depression/anxiety relationship (p-value < 0.001), whereas depression did not mediate RES/anxiety correlation (p-value = 0.68).

Conclusions: We demonstrated that RES is a significant independent predictor of anxiety in PwE and is able to modulate depression impact on anxiety. Moreover, we confirmed the relevance of depression and sleep quality on anxiety severity.

Keywords: Anxiety; Epilepsy; Resilience.