Demographic patterns from an epilepsy clinic in Sri Lanka

Introduction: Over half of the 50 million people with epilepsy worldwide are estimated to live in Asia. Although much research is done in Asia, information about the recognition of the burden created by the disease is scarce. Better understanding of the demographic distribution of epilepsy would improve our knowledge and understanding of this disorder at the population level.

Method: A retrospective hospital-based study was conducted to determine demographic patterns in patients attending the epilepsy clinic at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka for one year. An interviewer based questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic characteristics.

Results: Data was gathered from 500 patients. Male to female ratio was 1.08:0.92. Two hundred and twelve patients (42.4%) belonged to the 16 to 30 age group while 140 (28%) were from the 31 to 45 age group. Most of the patients in the aforesaid age groups (n=352) were unemployed (n=211, 59.94%) and only 89 (25.3%) were employed. Two hundred and sixty four patients (75%) were unmarried while 7 (1.9%) were divorced. The number of patients who received primary and secondary education were 44 (24.4%) and 93 (51.6%) respectively. Two (1.1%) patients went to university. Forty one (22.8%) had no schooling. The causes of epilepsy are: no identifiable cause 357 (71.4%), CNS infections 46 (9.2%), head trauma 25 (5%), peri-natal distress 32 (6.4%) stroke 22 (4.4%) and structural lesions 18 (3.6%).

Conclusion: Many epilepsy patients have fewer educational, marital, and employment opportunities which contributes towards poor interpersonal skills, social withdrawal and low self esteem.

CNS infections, though small in number in the above cohort remains an important cause of epilepsy. Early case detection and treatment of CNS infections may further lower the burden of epilepsy.