[Traditional health practitioners and epilepsies in Ivory Coast]

We report the results of a descriptive 3-month observational study concerning the experience and knowledge about epilepsy of 30 traditional health practitioners in the Ivory Coast. Most respondents were men over 30 years of age. They had an average of 14.3 years of professional experience. More than half of respondents (54%) had not attended school. All traditional practitioners knew that epilepsy was a brain disease. For 83.3% of them, the disease was supernatural, due to a curse. These traditional healers knew all the clinical manifestations of generalized tonico-clonic seizure. For over 72% of them, noise, presence of a public, nervousness and coffee consumption were factors favoring seizures. Sixty percent of the traditional healers still believed in the contagiousness of epilepsy, and all claimed to cure it by traditional treatment. Most all healers (97%) used plant products, but only 10% released the name of the plants used (Rubiaceae or Lamiaceae families). This survey highlights the urgency of awareness campaigns and the need for training of Ivorian traditional healers and the necessity to improve the collaboration between modern and traditional medicine.