‘EPILEPSY ‘CAN BE
TREATED WITH MEDICATION
India has 10-15 million epilepsy patients but the good
news is that the problem can be controlled in 80 percent cases, experts said.“Eighty
percent of the patients can be treated with medicines,” said B.S. Sharma, head
of the department of neurosurgery at the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS).He said the remaining could be treated with surgery, and 70-80
percent of the surgeries show “good results”.Dr. Sharma was speaking along with
policy makers and other medical experts at an event at the AIIMS complex.
R.C. Mishra, another expert in neurosciences, told the
gathering that some 5,000 Indians became patients of epilepsy every year.“It is
a pity that so many myths about epilepsy have persisted for so long,” he said.
“The fact is that epilepsy and insanity can’t be linked.”K.K. Turel, president
of the Neurological Society of India, stressed that patients of epilepsy needed
to be very careful about their medication.“Medicines can control epilepsy in 80
percent of the patients,” he said. “If epilepsy is controlled, one can lead a
normal life.”He said doctors opted for surgery only when epilepsy persisted
despite taking two to three medicines.“Between medicines and surgery, 95
percent of all patients get relief,” he said.A useful booklet given away on the
occasion listed some of the more famous patients of epilepsy: Alfred Nobel,
Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Agatha Christie, Aristotle, Charles Dickens and
Isaac Newton.
Prof.
John Kurakar
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