PREVALENCE AND PATTERN OF MAJOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS IN RURAL KASHMIR (INDIA) IN 1986

In 1986 in the Kuthar Valley in the Anantnag District of south Kashmir (northwestern India), we studied the population to ascertain the prev alence and pattern of various neurological diseases. A house-to-house survey was done in a rural population of 63,645 (according to a World Health Organization protocol, 1981). 616 cases of major neurological d isorders were detected, yielding a prevalence of ratio of 9.67/1,000 a s of prevalence day November 1, 1986. The prevalence ratios for variou s common neurological disorders were: epilepsy 2.47/ 1,000; stroke 1.4 3/1,000; paralytic poliomyelitis 2.18/1,000; mental retardation 2.09/1 ,000; deaf mutism 1.63/1,000, and cerebral palsy 1.24/1,000. Persons w ith these conditions constituted 92% of all neurological cases. Patien ts with motor neuron disease, Alzheimer's dementia or multiple scleros is were not found.