title: Basic knowledge of epilepsy among medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The medical students' knowledge about basic medical neuroscience in the preclinical level may be fragmented and incomplete.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Evaluate the knowledge of students prior to a lecture on epilepsy in clinical level.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred ten fourth-year medical students' knowledge was accessed by a self-administered questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The presented results revealed that 91.8% of respondents knew that epilepsy arose from a transient dysfunction in the brain. Generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCs) were the most common type (91.5%) they knew and absence seizures were the least common type (33.6%) they knew. All of them knew that eating pork and punishment of gods did not cause epilepsy. However 50% thought that genetics was a cause and 80.3% did not know that stroke and sleep deprivation (92.7%) cause epilepsy. About treatment and prognosis, only 28.2% of respondents thought epilepsy can be cured and patients should take antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for seizure free 2-5 years (48.2%), life long (33.6%). They knew that the patients should be prohibited from driving (80%), working on machinery (74.5%), and (27.3%) avoid drinking. However, they knew that the patients could marry (100%), get pregnant (98.2%), and lactate (91.9%). Regarding the first aid management, 50.9% of them recommended that placing a piece of wood between the teeth during a seizure and perform chest compressions (20.0%). Means knowledge scores is about 60%, the highest score is the definition of epilepsy (90.2%) and the lowest is type of seizure (43%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicated that lecturers should review aspects ofpathophysiology and emphasize on type of seizure, cause, consequences, and prognosis including first-aid management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. somtia@kku.ac.th
authors.forename: Siriporn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tiamkao
authors.forename: Somsak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tiamkao
authors.forename: Narong
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Auevitchayapat
authors.forename: Suwanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arunpongpaisal
authors.forename: Aporanee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaiyakum
authors.forename: Suthipun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jitpimolmard
authors.forename: Warinthorn
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Phuttharak
authors.forename: Kutcharin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Phunikhom
authors.forename: Jiamjit
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saengsuwan M
authors.forename: Suda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vannaprasaht
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003625:Data Collection; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires