Table 2.

Effects of antidepressants in patients with epilepsy

Study group	Antidepressants	Follow up	Seizure frequency in treatment group	Reference
9 PWE	FLX	3 months	4 Px increase in seizure frequency by >50%; 5 Px not increased	Gigli et al. (1994)
36 PWE and MDD	SRT, FLX	1 year	2 Px increase in seizure frequency; 34 Px not increased (number of Px with reduced seizures not mentioned)	Thome-Souza et al. (2007)
100 PWE and depression or OCD	SRT	1 year	6 Px increase in seizure frequency; 94 Px not increased (number of Px with reduced seizures not mentioned)	Kanner et al. (2000)
39 PWE and depression	CIT	4 months	2 Px had 50% increase in seizures; 37 Px with 50% decrease in seizures	Specchio et al. (2004)
11 PWE	CIT	8–10 months	All Px showed improvements: 64.1% mean reduction in seizure frequency	Favale et al. (2003)
17 PWE	FLX	14 months	Seizures disappeared in 6 Px; in others, seizure frequency reduced by 30%	Favale et al. (1995)
43 PWE and HAMD score >15	CIT	2 months	No change in seizure frequency	Hovorka et al. (2000)
75 PWE and HAMD score >15	MIR, CIT, REB	7.5 months	No change in seizure frequency	Kuhn et al. (2003)
28 PWE	FLV	29–444 days	No change in seizure frequency	Harmant et al. (1990)
121 PWE	Various 1st and 2nd gen. drugs	1 year	No change in seizure frequency compared to non-treated Px	Okazaki et al. (2011)

Patient drop outs not included in sample sizes.

CIT, citalopram; FLV, fluvoxamine; FLX, fluoxetine; HAMD, hamilton depression rating scale; MDD, major depressive disorder; MIR, mirtazepine; OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder; PWE, people with epilepsy; Px, patients; REB, reboxetine; SRT, sertraline.