Basic knowledge of epilepsy among medical students.
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.
Tiamkao
Siriporn
S
Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. somtia@kku.ac.th
Tiamkao
Somsak
S
Auevitchayapat
Narong
N
Arunpongpaisal
Suwanna
S
Chaiyakum
Aporanee
A
Jitpimolmard
Suthipun
S
Phuttharak
Warinthorn
W
Phunikhom
Kutcharin
K
Saengsuwan M
Jiamjit
J
Vannaprasaht
Suda
S
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