Authors: Sounga Bandzouzi Prince Eliot Galieni, Motoula Dina, Diatewa Josue, Mpandzou Ghislain, Armel, Afaignon Christelle, Koubemba Godefroy Charles, Sow Adjaratou, Ossou-Nguiet Paul Macaire, Ndamba Bandzouzi Bébène, Toure Kamadore, N’Diaye Moustapha.
Background: Epilepsy is a chronic affection evolving neurologic manifestation and cognitive disorders. It is a real problem in African countries and mainly affects children who are subject to learning difficulties.
Objective: Evaluate the scholar course of children and adolescents with idiopathic epilepsy.
Methods: For one year and three months, a prospective, analytical and descriptive study was conducted among children and adolescents with epilepsy, aged 6 to 18, living in the Dakar region. A total of 149 subjects were collected including 80 epileptics. These were followed regularly at CHNU de Fann. The survey was conducted in the Neurology Department and in the schools of recruited patients.
Results: The results revealed that 45% of patients had school retardation; 73.7% of patients had learning difficulties which concerned several topics. Most of patients were bad in reading (50%). Among these patients, 21.3% and 17.5% had respectively hyperactivity with attention and concentration disorders. In addition, 63.6% of patients on combined therapy had learning difficulties, 15% of patients did not accept their disease and hardly live and 97.5% participated in sports as their classmates.
Conclusion: The education of patients with idiopathic epilepsy still faces obstacles and difficulties; with learning difficulties, neuropsychological disorders and psychomotor disorders. Subsequent studies on large populations should be conducted to better assess the impact of epilepsy on scholarship.