BACKGROUND: Epilepsy, one of the world’s most prevalent
chronic diseases is stil regarded as a supernatural disease
in many parts of the world. These superstitious and cultural
beliefs tend to influence treatment seking behavior of people
living with epilepsy (PWE) and their caregivers.
STUDY DESIGN: People living with epilepsy in a semi-urban
community in Southeast Nigeria were identifed in a two phase
dor-to-dor cros-sectional descriptive study. Those identifed
and their caregivers were further interviewed to determine
their concepts of the disease, their treatment (actual and
prefered) and what informed treatment.
RESULTS: We found 29 cases of active epilepsy, 16 (5.2%)
males and 13 (4.8%) females. Witchcraft was held as a
major cause of epilepsy in the community acounting for
36.2% (n=17) of the responses. The thre major treatment
modalities used were spiritual (healing churches), traditional
(herbal medicines) and orthodox treatment with antiepileptic
drugs. Spiritual treatment was the prefered treatment
modality, though most (89.7%) have used traditional (herbal
medicine) treatment at one point in the course of the disease.
Beliefs on epilepsy and information on the disease obtained
mostly from non-medical sources informed treatment.
CONCLUSION: The epileptic population studied prefered
spiritual treatment hough use of traditional treatment was
also common. Treatment seking behavior was greatly
influenced by their beliefs and information on the disease
obtained mainly from non-medical sources. WAJM 2013;
32(1): 26–30.