DIGITAL MENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT FOR PSYCHIATRICCOMORBIDITY IN EPILEPSY: A CLINICAL VALIDATIONSTUDY

Objectives: Cognitive symptoms, anxiety, and depression are psychiatriccomorbidities frequently linked to epilepsy that negatively impact clinical resultsandquality of life. Despite their common occurrence, these illnesses are frequentlyunderdiagnosed because of time constraints, a lack of specialists, andrelianceonresource-intensive interviews.This study aimed to verify a digital mental health screening instrument thatpromotes scalable, technology-assisted psychiatric care and ensures diagnosticintegrity while detecting psychiatric comorbidities in patients with epilepsy. Methods:
A digital mental health platform incorporating adaptive assessment algorithmsandestablished psychometric measures was used to evaluate individuals withaconfirmed diagnosis of epilepsy in this clinical validation study. Gold-standardstructured clinical interviews were administered to each participant separatelybyqualified psychiatrists. Analysis was done on The diagnostic agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy between the clinical and digital evaluations were analyzed. To determine real-world application, feasibility and patient acceptabilitywereassessed. Findings: The digital mental health evaluation showedexcellentconcordance with structured interviews conducted by clinicians in identifyingfrequent psychiatric comorbidities among people with epilepsy. Strong diagnosticperformance across mood and anxiety disorders was demonstrated by sensitivityandspecificity values. Patients embraced the digital method, which greatly shortenedtheassessment time and showed great promise for regular clinical use in the future. Summary: The validated digital assessment instrument provides a dependableandeffective approach for screening psychiatric comorbidities in patients withepilepsy. Its integration into clinical practice may enhance early identification, enable scalabledelivery of mental health care, and improve the management of epilepsy. Whilemaintaining clinical standards. This strategy is beneficial for healthcare environmentswith low resources worldwide.