title: Psychosocial aspects of epilepsy: a wider approach.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Epilepsy is one of the most serious neurological conditions and has an impact not only on the affected individual but also on the family and, indirectly, on the community. A global approach to the individual must take into account cognitive problems, psychiatric comorbidities and all psychosocial complications that often accompany epilepsy. We discuss psychosocial issues in epilepsy with special focus on the relationship between stigma and psychiatric comorbidities. Social barriers to optimal care and health outcomes for people with epilepsy result in huge disparities, and the public health system needs to invest in awareness programmes to increase public knowledge and reduce stigma in order to minimise such disparities.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  J.W.S. receives research support from the Dr Marvin Weil Epilepsy Research Fund, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, the World Health Organization and the EU's FP7 programme, and has been consulted by, and has received fees for lectures from, GlaxoSmithKline, Eisai, Lundbeck, Teva and UCB.
  © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license.
authors.affiliation: , MD, PhD, Atkinson Morley Regional Neuroscience Centre, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust, London, UK; Institute of Medical and Biomedical Sciences, St George's University of London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mula
authors.affiliation: , MD, PhD, FRCP, Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, NIHR UCL Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Epilepsy Society, Chalfont St Peter, UK; Stichting Epilepsie Instellingen Nederland - SEIN, Heemstede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Josemir W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sander