Baxendale Sallie, O'Toole Annette
Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK.
Epilepsy Behav. 2007 Sep;11(2):192-6. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2007.04.019. Epub 2007 Jun 29.
Many myths are perpetuated and reinforced in the portrayal of fictional characters with epilepsy in films and on television. Common cinematic treatment myths include the necessity for immediate medical intervention in the form of an ambulance crew to stop a seizure and the placing of an object in the seizing person's mouth to prevent the person from choking on her or his tongue. Other misrepresentations include excessive "foaming" at the mouth during a seizure and frequent violence. We conducted an Internet-based survey to examine the prevalence of belief in these myths in the United Kingdom. We received 4605 valid responses. People who knew someone with epilepsy were significantly less likely to subscribe to all the myths than were those who had no personal knowledge of epilepsy. Seeing seizures in public appears to improve knowledge regarding appropriate first aid procedures, but does not have an impact on myths surrounding the presentation of a seizure. These results are discussed in relation to the "we see what we expect to see" phenomenon in relation to stereotypes surrounding epilepsy.
电影和电视中对患有癫痫的虚构角色的刻画使许多误解得以延续和强化。常见的电影处理误区包括：认为必须由急救人员立即进行医疗干预以制止癫痫发作，以及在癫痫发作的人嘴里放置物品以防止其舌头阻塞气道。其他错误描述还包括癫痫发作时过度的“口吐白沫”以及频繁出现暴力行为。我们开展了一项基于互联网的调查，以研究在英国相信这些误解的普遍程度。我们收到了4605份有效回复。认识癫痫患者的人比那些对癫痫没有亲身了解的人更不太可能相信所有这些误解。在公共场合目睹癫痫发作似乎能提高对适当急救程序的认识，但对围绕癫痫发作表现的误解没有影响。我们结合与癫痫相关刻板印象的“我们看到我们期望看到的”现象对这些结果进行了讨论。
