Perfil clínico-epidemiológico de pacientes pediátricos com epilepsia na cidade de Campina Grande.

Abstract

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder affecting approximately 50 million people around the world. Your involvement is considered unequal within populations of individuals worldwide and age groups. The research had as objective to describe the pediatric population with epilepsy of Campina Grande , Paraíba , Brazil , addressing sociodemographic, clinical , behavioral and educational variables. It was a descriptive cross-sectional observational study, conducted through questionnaires with the legal guardians of the patients. 124 children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years old were included with an established diagnosis of epilepsy, met in Child Neurology sectors of University Hospital Alcides Carneiro (HUAC) and Clinic Neurocenter. From these, sixty -nine were male and fifty-five were female. The age range of the age of first seizure was mostly 0-4 years old. Regarding socioeconomic aspect, predominated lower education, especially male parents, and family income between one and two minimum wages. The majority of attending was for the private sector due to the increased flow of patients in this sector, with the difficulty of access to public service as the main reason

for this choice. Family history proved important factor, with a prevalence of 47% of second- degree relatives of kinship. In clinical aspect , 56% are using monotherapy versus 44% in

polytherapy, with a significant reduction of seizures after the introduction of anticonvulsant . The behavioral and school profiles analyzed results showed 13 patients with atypical behavior and 18% with the presence of stereotypies, and an unsatisfactory school performance in 42% of children that goes to school. It was possible to conclude that the enrolled population follows the characteristics of populations previously studied in national and international researches as regards clinical profile. Because it is a condition with neurobiological, cognitive, psychological and social consequences directly interferes with quality of life of individuals, especially those with more significant disease, changing to a compromised sleep, behavior and school performance.