Pharmacoresistant Epilepsy: Prevalence and Risk Factors Amongst Epilepsy Patients in Cameroon
Abstract number :
1.219
Submission category :
4. Clinical Epilepsy / 4C. Clinical Treatments
Year :
2023
Submission ID :
136
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/2/2023 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Mundih Njohjam, MD – Ibrahima Pierre Ndiaye Neurosciences Clinic
Rationale: Although epilepsy is a treatable medical condition, a significant proportion of cases are pharmacoresistant. Cameroon has one of the highest epilepsy prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). No studies have been to determine the prevalence and risk factors of pharmacoresistant epilepsy in Cameroon. A comprehensive understanding of context-specific prevalence and risk factors associated with drug-resistance epilepsy is indispensable for the development and implementation of strategies to reduce pharmacoresistant epilepsy.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical studies amongst epilepsy patients living in communities with high epilepsy prevalence Cameroon. Pharmacoresistant epilepsy was defined using the International League against Epilepsy criteria for drug resistant epilepsy as follows: failures of adequate trials of two well tolerated, appropriately chosen and used anti-epileptic drug schedules (whether as monotherapies or in combination) to achieve sustained seizure freedom. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors associated with pharmacoresistant epilepsy.
Results: The prevalence of pharmacoresistant epilepsy was 33.7%. Generalized tonic clonic seizures, childhood onset epilepsy, female gender, history of concomitant use of herbal medicines, poor response to first anti-seizure medication, delay in seeking medical treatment and history of self-discontinuation of anti-seizure medications were all significantly associated with pharmacoresistant epilepsy.
Conclusions: The prevalence of pharmacoresistant epilepsy in our study was significantly high. A significant proportion of pharmacoresistant epilepsy cases could be prevented by addressing risk factors such as concomitant usage of herbal medicines, delay in seeking medical treatment and self-discontinuation of anti-seizure medications. More sophisticated studies are needed to describe the pathophysiological processes, genetic, electroencephalographic and neuroimaging characteristics pf pharmacoresistant epilepsy
Funding: No funding was received for this study.
Clinical Epilepsy