Mental Health and Epilepsy - CURE Epilepsy Webinar

Mental health is among the many issues that can affect both children and adults living with epilepsy. While some people may experience few mental health issues, others may suffer debilitating problems of anxiety, depression, or mood disorders. It is imperative that clinicians address and treat these psychiatric symptoms early in the individual’s epilepsy journey to reduce the negative consequences they might have on the long-term quality of life. In fact, many clinicians and patients agree that treating anxiety and depression may help improve the quality of life for people with epilepsy more than reducing seizures.
This webinar will discuss the prevalence of anxiety and depression among people with epilepsy. Viewers will learn how anxiety and depression impact people with epilepsy in many different ways, but that neurologists often have multiple tools at their disposal to help alleviate these psychiatric symptoms. In some cases, the treatment of these symptoms may influence the treatment of the seizures themselves.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Heidi Munger Clary is an Associate Professor and Epilepsy Fellowship Director at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She is an adult epileptologist whose research focuses on anxiety and depression in epilepsy. The overarching goal is to develop and test strategies for neurology clinic-based action to close the screening, treatment, and outcome gaps for these impactful comorbidities. Dr. Munger Clary is Chair of the American Epilepsy Society Psychosocial Comorbidities Special Interest Group, Chair of the American Academy of Neurology Epilepsy Quality Measurement Workgroup, and Co-Chair of the Integrated Mental Health Care Pathways Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy's Psychiatry Commission.