Nuhu Folorunsho T, Fawole Joseph O, Babalola Obafemi J, Ayilara Olaniyi O, Sulaiman Zainab T
Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Kaduna, Nigeria.
Ann Afr Med. 2010 Jul-Sep;9(3):170-5. doi: 10.4103/1596-3519.68360.
Epilepsy is the commonest neurological disorder and majority of the sufferers are found in the developing countries. It is associated with psychological and social problems. The aim of this study was to determine the social difficulties experienced by epileptic patients and the factors that are associated with these difficulties.
Two hundred and thirty-one consecutive epileptic patients who were of age 10 years and above, and who had no co-morbid major psychiatric disorder, seen over a 6-month period at the outpatient clinic of Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital, Kaduna, were interviewed. We used an instrument designed for the purpose of this study, which focused on people's attitudes to epilepsy, relationship/marital, employment and academic problems.
The mean age of the subjects was 28 +/- 13.2 years; 59.3% were males; 44.6% said people make negative remarks about their illness; 14.1% have been denied leadership role; 36.4% were irregular at work; 37.3% performed poorly at work; 22.5% have had their marriage proposals rejected; 19.5% have been abandoned by spouse. At least 39.4% had poor academic performance while 19.5% were withdrawn from school because of epilepsy. Short seizure-free period, long duration of seizure disorder and family history of epilepsy were significantly associated with social problems.
Social difficulties are common among epileptics. Effort should be made to educate the society about epilepsy, and physicians treating patients with epilepsy should aim at achieving a good seizure control.
癫痫是最常见的神经系统疾病，大多数患者分布在发展中国家。它与心理和社会问题相关。本研究的目的是确定癫痫患者所经历的社会困难以及与这些困难相关的因素。
对在卡杜纳联邦神经精神病医院门诊6个月期间连续就诊的231例10岁及以上、无合并重大精神疾病的癫痫患者进行了访谈。我们使用了为本研究设计的一种工具，该工具聚焦于人们对癫痫的态度、人际关系/婚姻、就业和学业问题。
受试者的平均年龄为28±13.2岁；59.3%为男性；44.6%的人表示人们对他们的疾病有负面评价；14.1%的人被剥夺领导角色；36.4%工作不规律；37.3%工作表现不佳；22.5%的求婚被拒绝；19.5%被配偶抛弃。至少39.4%的人学业成绩差，19.5%的人因癫痫而辍学。癫痫发作间期短、癫痫病程长和癫痫家族史与社会问题显著相关。
癫痫患者中社会困难很常见。应努力对社会进行癫痫知识教育，治疗癫痫患者的医生应致力于实现良好的癫痫发作控制。
