Profile of Patients with Epilepsy Seen at Aro Primary Care Mental Health Programme for Ogun State, Nigeria

Objective: A remarkable proportion of patients seen at the Aro Primary Care mental health programme setting also suffer from epilepsy. Failure to treat epilepsy may affect the quality of health care to the patients. The study was designed to assess the clinical and socio-demographic profile of patients with epilepsy seen at Aro primary care mental health programme for ogun state Method: We conducted a retrospective review of records of all epilepsy patients who were completely entered into Aro primary care mental health register. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, standard deviation and percentages were used to describe socio-demographic characteristics of the patients. Results: Nine hundred and seventy-seven patients (977) with complete entries into the register were analyzed (from November 2011 – November 2019). There were 498 (51%) males. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 40.1(13.6) years. A majority of the patients was unemployed (39%), 56.2% were of lower educational status and 63.8% were not married. All the patients had convulsive type of epilepsy and were placed on either carbamazepine or phenobarbitone with average doses of 472.5(37.6) mg and 60.2(0.8) mg respectively. About 70% of the participants had no record any further episode of seizure at the sixth month of treatment. Conclusion: The Aro Primary Care Mental Health Programme manages a large and socioeconomically vulnerable cohort of patients with diverse neuropsychiatric conditions including convulsive epilepsy who respond well to antiepileptic medications in the short term. These findings reinforce the importance and feasibility of integrating epilepsy care into primary-care mental-health services, while highlighting the need for improved diagnostic capacity, long-term follow-up and social interventions to address the broader determinants of health for people living with epilepsy.