Patient perspectives on epilepsy in a developing country

Adolescent and adult epileptic patients attending the Neurological Clinics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital were interviewed to assess patient perspectives of epilepsy. Although all of them admitted to having recurrent seizures, 35.9% did not accept that they had epilepsy. Among those who accepted the diagnosis, only 34.5% were willing to disclose it to other people. The majority thought that people generally fear epilepsy and avoid contact with epileptic patients. Most of the patients did not know the causes of epilepsy. The majority, however, had many positive views on epilepsy and favorable attitudes toward other epileptic patients. Although many of them rated epileptic persons lower than nonepileptic persons with respect to contribution to society, hard work, temperament, and ability to make close friends, a majority thought that epileptic patients were not disabled and had the same intelligence, ambition, and ability to be educated as nonepileptic persons. Only 50.4% of them thought epileptic persons should not drive motor vehicles, and 19.7% thought epilepsy should be reported to the licensing authority. On their treatment 62.4% were satisfied with medical treatment alone, whereas 32.5% combined medical treatment with "native medicine" or spiritual church healing.