Adaptation of the depression scale for neurological disorders in young people with epilepsy in Turkey and determination of depression characteristics.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the depression scale in neurological disorders and to determine the characteristics of depression in young people with a diagnosis of epilepsy.

Methods: The population of the study consisted of epileptic youth aged 12-17 years (96 people) who attended the paediatric neurology outpatient clinic of a university hospital during the data collection process and who were able to make self-reports.Validity and reliability analyzes were performed with IBM SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 programs.

Results: The scale; Sensitivity was found to be 81 %, Specificity was 98.1 %, Positive Predictive Values (PPV) was 97.14 %, and Negative Predictive Values (NPV) was 86.88 %. The reliability coefficient (cronbach's alpha) of the scale was 0.924, which indicates a high level of reliability. In confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), CFA factor loading values of the items were found to be valid in the range of 0.575-0.904. The depression rate of young people with epilepsy was 36.5 % and the mean score of depression levels was 25.4 ± 9.0, which is above the average.

Conclusions: The depression scale in neurological disorders adapted to Turkish for young people who were diagnosed with epilepsy was found to be valid and reliabl.

Practical implications: The Turkish version of the Depression Inventory in Neurological Disorders can be used as a valid and reliable measurement tool to assess depression in young people aged 12-17 years diagnosed with epilepsy.