The humor characteristics of young epileptic patients and its correlation with depression

Objective: To explore the characteristics of humor in young adult epileptic patients and examine the relationship between humor and depression. Methods: We recruited 55 young adult epileptic patients who visited outpatient clinic of the Department of Neurology of Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College between October 2018 and March 2019 and 44 healthy controls to complete the multidimensional humor scale (MSHS), humor style questionnaire (HSQ) and Beck depression scale- (BDI-), and compared their differences between the two groups. Results: The results showed that the young adult patients with epilepsy (PWEs) were affected in humor creation, coping with humor and the totally scores of MSHS. The scores of humor creation, coping with humor and the totally scores of MSHS in the young epilepsy patients were 25.3+/-5.9, 16.7+/-5.0 and 61+/-10, which were significantly lower than those in the control group 29.8+/-6.1, 21.1+/-2.6 and 71+/-8. As for the humor style, self-defeating humor scores in PWEs were higher than controls 14+/-5 vs 9+/-3, and the self-enhancing humor scores were lower than controls 18+/-7 vs 23+/-6. The scores of BDI- in PWEs were significantly higher than those of normal controls 13+/-7 vs 6+/-4. Pearson's correlation test showed that the scores of BDI- were negatively correlated with humor creation, coping with humor, the totally scores of MSHS and self-enhancing humor scores (r=-0.566--0.721, P<0.05), while it was positively correlated with self-defeating humor scores (r=0.818, P<0.05). Among the clinically relevant factors, the scores of BDI- were correlated with seizure control and gender. Multiple stepwise linear regression showed that coping with humor, self-defeating and self-enhancing humor scores were closely related with depression in young epileptic adults. Conclusion: The young adults with epilepsy are affected in sense of humor and humor style, which are closely related with depression.