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Primary care doctors' management behavior with respect to epilepsy in Kerala, southern India.
- Source :
-
Epilepsy & behavior : E&B [Epilepsy Behav] 2011 Jun; Vol. 21 (2), pp. 137-42. Date of Electronic Publication: 2011 May 04. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Although a majority of persons with epilepsy in developing countries are diagnosed, treated, and followed up by primary care doctors, few efforts have been made to examine their understanding with respect to epilepsy management. Through a questionnaire survey, we gathered information about the epilepsy management behavior of 500 primary care doctors distributed across the south Indian state of Kerala. Very few of them ever had diagnosed focal seizures, and the majority of them overutilize EEGs, prescribe continuous antiepileptic drug (AED) prophylaxis for febrile convulsions, use relatively expensive AEDs often in combination and in suboptimal doses, and did not know about alternate management options for AED-resistant epilepsies. A substantial proportion of the current large treatment gap in epilepsy in developing countries could be minimized by educating the primary care physicians about the diagnosis of epileptic seizures, cost-effective AED treatment, and need-based referral for specialized care.<br /> (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Subjects :
- Anticonvulsants standards
Epilepsy diagnosis
Epilepsy epidemiology
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Surveys
Humans
India epidemiology
Practice Patterns, Physicians' statistics & numerical data
Residence Characteristics
Surveys and Questionnaires
Anticonvulsants therapeutic use
Epilepsy drug therapy
Physicians, Primary Care psychology
Physicians, Primary Care statistics & numerical data
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1525-5069
- Volume :
- 21
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 21536499
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2011.03.023