The burden of epilepsy: data from an epilepsy clinic

Introduction: Over half of the 50 million people with epilepsy worldwide are estimated to live in Asia, but information about the recognition of the burden created by the disease is scarce. Studies in the region and in Sri Lanka focusing on the burden of epilepsy are limited.

Design/Setting: A retrospective hospital-based study was conducted to determine educational, marital, and employment opportunities of patients with epilepsy attending the epilepsy clinic at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka for one year. An interviewer based questionnaire was used to collect data.

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.

Interpretation: Many epilepsy patients have fewer educational, marital, and employment opportunities which contribute towards poor interpersonal skills, social withdrawal and low selfesteem. This emphasises that epilepsy is a chronic disabling neurological disorder which causes many psychosocial tribulations that need to be addressed by healthcare professionals.