Feasibility of psychological screening in a tertiary epilepsy clinic

•Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) was positive in 15.5% of patients with epilepsy (PWE), and 17.0% had moderate or severe anxiety.•Psychological screening using self-administered questionnaires in a busy clinic was feasible.•Risk factors for depression include the age of seizure onset, the duration of epilepsy, and levetiracetam (LEV).•Risk factors for anxiety include age, LEV, and Indian ethnicity. People with epilepsy (PWE) have a high prevalence of developing depression and anxiety. The objective is to determine the feasibility of brief screening tools to screen for depression and anxiety in epilepsy, and the predictive factors. This is a cross-sectional study in the neurology clinic in a tertiary teaching hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The screening tools used were the Neurological Disorders Depression Inventory for Epilepsy (NDDI-E) and the General Anxiety Disorder Form (GAD-7). Five hundred and eighty-five patients were recruited in this study, and 50.8% of them were male, predominantly Chinese (46.7%), with a mean age of seizure onset of 21.8 ± 16.1 years. The majority had focal seizures (75.0%), and 41.9% had seizure remission. There were 15.5% who scored ≥15 in the NDDI-E, and 17.0% had moderate or severe anxiety (scored ≥10 in the GAD-7). In a regression model to predict the NDDI-E score, the age of seizure onset recorded a higher beta value (β = −0.265, p =