Psychiatric Social Worker, State Institute of Mental Health University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India
Online published on 9 December, 2015.
Epilepsy is a major public health concern. The major psychosocial issues related to epilepsy are: Quality of medical management, Inadequate treatment, coping, social stigma, social support, family burden, over protection, education, employment, marriage and pregnancy.
To study the psychosocial aspects of epilepsy.
Literature search of both electronic databases including Pub Med and manual searches.
There is ample literature indicates that parents, Teachers, students Employers, employees need to be educated about epilepsy. If seizures are well controlled, job opportunities increase.. Self-employment is the best in epileptic patients. Regarding marriage, each patient is to be judged on individual merits and type of epilepsy. Society needs to be educated about the facts and consequences of epilepsy. Risk of anti-epileptic drug's usage is very insignificant compared to risk of seizures in pregnancy. So women are advised to seek medical advice before pregnancy and during follow-up.
Epileptic seizures have been known to be precipitated by psychological trigger such as stress, anxiety, anger and emotions, as well as by mental tasks and thoughts A complete treatment of epilepsy involves not just medication, but includes teaching the patient about their brain and its functioning, and how they can use their feelings, thinking, and behavior in the control of their epilepsy.
