CLINICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC CHANGES IN EPILEPTIC PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 INFECTION

Abstract

The article provides information about clinical and mental changes in epileptic patients who have experienced COVID-19 infection. The frequency of these symptoms, their clinical characteristics and the dependence of their manifestation on the infection of COVID-19 were investigated. Various scales or questionnaires were used in the research. Observations have shown that epileptic seizures on the NHS-3 scale occur more frequently and tend to increase in severity in epileptic patients who have had an infection with COVID-19. When assessing the mental sphere of their patients (with the MMSE and HADS scales), it was found that cases of mental spectrum disorders prevail in epileptic patients who have experienced COVID-19. The presence of mild depression (BDI scale) and severe asthenia (MFI scale) were also more marked in this group. Analysis of the results showed that epileptic patients who had experienced a COVID-19 infection were more likely to have impaired cognitive function. Sleep disturbances were assessed using the MOS-SS scale, and it was found that epileptic patients with coronovirus infection were more likely to have moderate sleep disturbances than those without COVID-19. During the correlation analysis, it was determined that there is a direct positive relationship between the severity and frequency of epileptic seizures with the infection of COVID-19. All this shows the negative effect of the infection of COVID-19 on the course of epilepsy.