Factors Associated with the Recurrence of Seizures in Epileptic Patients at Kamuzu Central Hospital
Loading...
Date
2006-11-28
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Abstract
A quantitative study on factors associated with the recurrence of seizures in epileptic patients was conducted at Kamuzu Central Hospital Epileptic clinic. The purpose of the study was to identify factors that contribute to the recurrent attacks of seizures in epileptic patients. The study consisted of 30 epileptic patients who were seeking health care services at the epileptic clinic. Convenient sampling was used to identify participants of the study. Only those patients who were in a position to give consent on their own participated in the Thedata that was collected was analysed manually. The findings showed that emotional stresses, psychological stress, treatment noncompliance and treatment changes are the major contributing factors to the recurrence of seizures in epileptic patients. The study findings revealed that most of the epileptic patients do not continue with their education and this leads to lack of employment and financial problems. Furthermore the findings have shown that most of the epileptic patients do not know the drugs they are taking by names, but by physical appearance. The researcher recommends that nurses at the epileptic clinic should include education on the nature of the disease and the importance of treatment compliance to minimize all the misconceptions that people have on epilepsy. The researcher also recommends that parents and the people who take care of epileptic patients should be encouraged to send epileptic children to school, because epileptic patients can also do better in class and proceed with their studies. Finally the researcher recommends that all nurses responsible and the hospital authorities should ensure that there is continuous supply of drugs to the clinic to avoid unnecessary treatment changes in these patients.