Objective: Stigma is associated with prevalent epilepsy, but its association with incident epilepsy is unknown.
Methods: We identified 209 children and adults with incident seizures from the diverse impoverished community of northern Manhattan. We interviewed 94 participants, aged 16 and older, about lifetime history of depression, health status, medical history, and stigma.
Results: At baseline, 18 (22.5%) participants reported experiencing stigma. Stigma was reported by 9 (50.0%) with depression and 9 (14.5%) without depression (P=0.002). At 1 year, 7 (8.1%) participants reported experiencing stigma. Stigma was reported by 5 (31.3%) with depression versus 1 (1.6%) without depression (P<0.0001). At both time points, odds of stigma increased when lifetime history of depression and fair/poor health was present.
Conclusions: Previous work revealed negative effects of prevalent epilepsy on stigma. In the low-income, predominantly Hispanic community of northern Manhattan, we found incident epilepsy was associated with stigma when lifetime history of depression or fair/poor health was present.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.