Związek między depresją a doświadczanym stygmatem u pacjentów z epilepsją: analiza sieciowa

Abstract Background Despite the close relation between stigma and depression in patients with epilepsy (PWE), little is known about how stigma and different symptoms of depression interrelate. The present study investigates the relations between stigma and different symptoms of depression in PWE by using network analysis and identifies the central variables and explores the gender differences above the stigma-depression network characteristics. Method Four hundred and eighty PWE (42.90% female) were included in this study. Kilifi stigma scale for epilepsy and Patient health Questionnaire-9 were used to measure stigma and different symptoms of depression, respectively. A regularized partial correlation network was constructed to reveal the relations between stigma and different symptoms of depression. Central nodes were identified by centrality indices. The network comparison test was conducted to explore whether network characteristics differed by gender. Results (1) In the 9 possible connections between stigma and symptoms of depression, 8 connections (only stigma and depression symptom “Sleep difficulties” are not connected) are existed in the final network. The strongest stigma-depression edges are between stigma and depression symptoms “Feeling of worthlessness”, “Depressed or sad mood” and “Anhedonia”; (2) The depression symptom “Feeling of worthlessness” and stigma are central variables within the stigma-depression network; (3) Gender had very minimal influence on above network characteristics. Conclusion Stigma and depression symptoms showed close and complex connections with each other. These findings may offer some references for the clinical prevention and intervention of felt stigma and depression in PWE.