Abstract

A hospital based prospective study was done at a tertiary care hospital over a period of six month to analyze the prescribing pattern of antiepileptic drugs, assess the knowledge of patient’s caregivers regarding epilepsy and quality of life of epileptic patients. 105 patients were covered during the study period. It was observed that male population (63.8%) was more prevalent to epilepsy than females. Generalized tonic-clonic seizure (52.9%) were the most common type of epileptic seizure, followed by Complex partial seizure (22.1%). Levetiracetam (71.4%) was the most frequently prescribed, followed by Phenytoin (31.4%). Poly therapy (59%) was frequently used. Before counseling, most of the patient’s caregivers had a medium level of knowledge regardless of education. Counseling was found to be an effective tool in improving the knowledge of the patient’s caregivers. Regarding with the quality of life, the patients were found to have more distress associated with lower energy/fatigue. Seizure worry and social functioning are other domains which have some effects related to quality of life. The study concluded that care of epileptic patients must be taken in to account by considering the various factors influencing the quality of life in these patients

Key words: Epilepsy, Quality of life, Anti-epileptics, Prescribing pattern, Knowledge, Counseling