Assessment of knowledge and attitudes towards epilepsy of a sample of Moroccan population at Ibn Rochd University hospital of Casablanca

Abstract

Epilepsy is among the most common neurological pathologies, affecting around 50 -70 million people from all populations worldwide. A high prevalence is estimated in underdeveloped and developing countries. Our aim is to assess the perception and knowledge of a sample of Moroccan population towards epilepsy. Epileptic and non-epileptic patients companying, were interviewed and a questionnaire on knowledge and attitudes about epilepsy was completed, in Neurological and Neurosurgical departments of Ibn Rochd University Hospital of Casablanca. Our results show that 5.7% of our group never heard of epilepsy. 26.3% have no idea about his neurological nature, while 52.5% attribute it to supernatural causes. 13,1% believe epilepsy is incurable, 13,1% doubt about its curability and 9,1% suppose it to be a disease of "insanity". Moreover, 5,1% consider that non-medical approaches (plants, marabouts and ''witchcraft'') as good first-line choices, while 31,6% who choose medicine first, intend to move towards these non-medical practices after a supposed ineffectiveness of the medical treatment. Therefore, our analysis reports that age (over 50), sex (women), area of residence (rural), source of information (general entourage) and the existence or not of an epileptic case in the family, are the main significant determining factors of the perception of our population on epilepsy. According to these preliminary results, we estimate that the consequences of such perception would lead to an inadequate management of an important part of patients, and certainly, more therapeutic difficulties and more complications. This highlights the interest of a good public awareness about this neurological disorder.
 Keywords: Knowledge, Attitudes, Epilepsy, Moroccan, Practices.