29 February 2004	Sunday	08 Muharram 1425

KARACHI, Feb 28: At least 25 million women are suffering from epilepsy in the world. This was stated by Prof Emeritus Hasan Aziz of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Saturday at the third annual conference of the Epilepsy Association of Pakistan.

He recalled that at the time the Epilepsy Association of Pakistan was established in 1991 there were only a handful of people involved in it. He expressed happiness over the fact that a large number of volunteers were now working with the association.

Speaking on the subject of "Women and epilepsy", he stressed that epilepsy was a medical problem and it should be addressed as such. He added that seizures and convulsions that women epileptic patients experienced could have effect on pregnancy, resulting in fetal injuries, peri-natal bleeding and congenital malformations.

Psychiatrist Amin Gadit of the Hamdard Medical University underlined the need for creating awareness of epilepsy, especially among teachers, so that they did not make epileptic patients conscious of their disease.

He shed light on the forensic aspect of epilepsy. He said that safe drugs could be used for epileptic patients in pregnancy. He said auditory hallucinations were more common in epilepsy.

Speaking on "Social issues of epilepsy", Prof Mohammad Abdullah of the Civil Hospital Karachi pointed out that there were many misconceptions about epilepsy. He added that quite a few people believed that an epileptic person had been possessed by a ghost.

He said that sometimes learning abilities of a student suffering from epilepsy were adversely affected. He added that such drugs should be used which allowed the patients to study.

Prof Abdullah pointed out that epileptic teenagers were terrified of having seizures in public. He added that this overpowering fear lowered their self-esteem and caused depression in them.

He said that parents of epileptic children became overprotective, thus putting added strain on them. He added that workers faced unnecessary problems at work when they disclosed that they had epilepsy.

Speaking on "Psychiatric issues in women with epilepsy," Dr Unaiza Niaz said people concealed epilepsy in young women fearing that if they made it known they would never get married.

She pointed out that if a person wrote that in his job application he had mental illness he would never get the job. She added that this was worse with epilepsy.

She said that children with epileptic mothers were affected because they also had to share the stigma attached to epilepsy in society.

She said that consanguinity should be avoided, genetic counselling and pre-natal counselling should be encouraged and customized treatment for patients should be initiated.

Dr Fowzia Siddiqui of John Hopkins University urged doctors not to generalize patients suffering from epilepsy. She pointed out that every individual had distinct physiological and physical condition which needed different drugs and response from doctors. She said doctors should bear in mind that there were many types of epilepsy.