The team of scientists in the School of Medicine received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for this research.

Nearly two million Americans suffer from epilepsy, many of whom continue to experience seizures despite new medical and surgical therapies. Living with persistent seizures, other disease-related discomforts and dysfunction of critical brain regions causes roughly one-third of these individuals to become depressed.

Though there is little scientific evidence about the effectiveness or safety of anti-depressants in patients with epilepsy, most physicians fear that these drugs may worsen seizures. Depression, therefore, generally goes untreated in these individuals.

But according to lead investigator Frank Gilliam, M.D., associate professor of neurology and neurological surgery, "untreated depression appears to have major adverse effects in epilepsy. Although seizures are assumed to define the severity of epilepsy, our research shows that depression is more closely associated with a patient's well-being and how well he or she functions overall."