Abstract
Introduction: Epilepsy is the most serious and prevalent neural disorder during childhood which its pervalance is increasing. The combination of epilepsy and mental ratardation leads to a considerable challenge and an economic load on the health system. The aim of this cross – sectional study was to identify the prevalence and monitoring of epilepsy among 6 to 21 years old mentally retarded students in Tehran.
Materials & Methods: The needed information, was collected from medical records of students and interviewing with parents.This study was done in autumn, 2002. At first , by referring to schools, the medical records of 4361 mentally retarded children were reviewed. Afterwards, some parents were randomly selected to be interviewed. Indices of age of onset, pattern of treament , parental knowledge and the time of the last seizure were used as monitoring determinants.
Results:The prevalence rate of epilepsy in these subjects was 10.55% which indicated a significant difference between the sexes (P = 0.001). In 51.1% of the students suffering from epilepsy, the age of onset was one year. 60.5% of the epileptic students had at least one epileptic attack during the last two years. The pattern of treatment medication in 46.1% of the epileptics, mentally retarded children was polypharmacy. Knowledge of 69.8% of the parents about epilepsy and how to approach it was low or very low.
Conclusion : Because of high prevalence and inadequate monitoring as well as low knowledge of parents it is necessary for parents to have educational program on epilepsy.
Keywords
Epilepsy Prevalence Mental Retardation Mentally Retarded Children
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