Singh Smriti, Mishra Vijaya Nath, Rai Alka, Singh Ranjeet, Chaurasia Rameshwar Nath
Department of Neurology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Department of Social Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2018 Jul-Sep;9(3):359-362. doi: 10.4103/jnrp.jnrp_63_18.
Epilepsy is a treatable chronic neurological disorder which is often linked to supernatural activities, due to lack of knowledge and awareness among the common people. The beliefs that outbreak of epilepsy as an unnatural or supernatural activities can be most frequently seen in rural population. One cannot say that the perception of urban populace is different from that of rural populace, but yes, they do differ at some extent.
Knowledge, superstition, and myth toward epilepsy in North India.
This is a questionnaire-based study (12 questions) conducted in neurology outpatient department of Banaras Hindu University, visited by more than hundreds of people from different province of northern India. This survey was also conducted in nearby areas of holy city Varanasi. People belonging to different socioeconomic background and educational level were surveyed to know their view regarding epilepsy.
In this survey conducted by our team, we came to the truth that urban population do consider epilepsy as an unnatural phenomenon and adopted different treatment tactics as given in this article.
There is the urgent need of creating awareness among the common people through different means such as newspaper, television, organizing health camps, and training local health practitioners for epilepsy management.
癫痫是一种可治疗的慢性神经系统疾病，由于普通民众缺乏相关知识和认识，它常常与超自然活动联系在一起。认为癫痫发作是不自然或超自然活动的观念在农村人口中最为常见。虽然不能说城市民众的认知与农村民众不同，但在一定程度上确实存在差异。
了解印度北部地区对癫痫的认知、迷信及误解情况。
这是一项基于问卷（共12个问题）的研究，在贝拿勒斯印度教大学的神经科门诊进行，来自印度北部不同省份的数百人前来就诊。该调查还在圣城瓦拉纳西附近地区开展。对不同社会经济背景和教育水平的人群进行了调查，以了解他们对癫痫的看法。
在我们团队进行的这项调查中，我们发现城市人口确实将癫痫视为一种不自然现象，并采取了本文所述的不同治疗策略。
迫切需要通过多种方式提高普通民众的认识，如报纸、电视、组织健康营以及培训当地医疗从业者进行癫痫管理。
