Impact of COVID-19 on people suffering with epilepsy

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common problems in neurology clinical practice and currently we are in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus pandemic is an epidemiological and psychological crisis, which is likely to affect persons with epilepsy. Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on patients with epilepsy and effects on their mental health. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional web-based survey carried out at the department of Neurology at a tertiary care hospital. A questionnaire was designed in the local language using Google Forms to assess basic knowledge regarding epilepsy, coronavirus, effects of COVID-19 and lockdown on epileptic patients and also effects on their mental health. The link to the online survey was distributed via WhatsApp messenger to epilepsy patients. Results: One hundred fifty-six cases were enrolled with 69.1% were below 34 years of age and male: female ratio was 1.2:1. Only 34.3% of the participants were employed and 50% of patients had an income of less than Rs. 3000 per month. Of the patients enrolled, 20.5% reported the “devil” and superstitions as a cause of epilepsy and only 10% of patients thought that tantric (holy priest) could treat the disease better than doctors. 53.8% of patients worried about getting COVID-19 and could not stop thoughts about being infected by coronavirus bothering them. 30.3% patients had increased seizure frequency during COVID-19 pandemic, of which the most common reason was that they forgot to take regular antiepileptic drugs (22.7%) or they had faced difficulty in obtaining medicine due to lockdown (12.1%). During the pandemic, 17% of patients reported depression symptoms and another 21% reported anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: The current COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected patients with epilepsy and increased seizure frequency, depression, anxiety, unemployment, and financial difficulty in obtaining medication.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on epilepsy practice in India: A tripartite survey

“…Only few other studies have evaluated the impact of COVID pandemic on the epilepsy practice. [ 8 , 9 ] Ours is the one of the first comprehensive study from the most affected LAMIC in the world to include inputs from neurologists, PWE, and comprehensive epilepsy care centers.…”

“…In a questionnaire based survey involving 132 PWE from north India, only 12% of patients reported difficulty in procuring ASMs during the pandemic which is similar to our results. [ 9 ] There may be several reasons for PWE not facing major difficulty during the lockdown period. Firstly, even during the strictest period of lockdown, medical stores and pharmacies were not closed.…”

“…These results are more or less similar to the survey from north India in which majority of the patients did not report any difficulty in accessing medical care. [ 9 ] The majority of the PWE also felt that COVID pandemic has not affected their life significantly.…”

“…For the analysis, we divided the dependent variables (numbers of outdoor and indoor patients and procedures) as ≥50 % and <50 % decline in numbers. We defined the 6 Indian provinces with highest case numbers (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka) as provinces with high patient load and compared data from these provinces to the rest of the provinces [9]. Subsequently, we undertook multivariate logistic regression analysis with forward stepwise (likelihood ratio) method.…”

“…We defined the 6 Indian provinces with highest case numbers (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka) as provinces with high patient load and compared data from these provinces to the rest of the provinces. [ 9 ] Subsequently, we undertook multivariate logistic regression analysis with forward stepwise (likelihood ratio) method. Those factors found to be significant on univariate analysis (p ≤ 0.05) were further entered into logistic regression models with probability for entry of the variables fixed as 0.05 and for removal 0.10.…”