PSYCHOSOCIAL STUDY OF EPILEPSY IN AFRICA

As documented by many authors, the social position of epileptics in ma ny small scale societies of Africa is marginal at best, and is often c haracterized by rejection, discrimination, even ostracism. Such negati ve and noxious attitudes toward persons suffering from epilepsy are ro oted in traditional beliefs about causes and nature of convulsive diso rders and these have parallels in European history. This article focus es on the psychosociocultural aspects and indigenous concepts of epile psy, on popular attitudes towards, and social status of, sufferers fro m epilepsy in a Tanzanian tribal population. The authors present a com parative analysis of focus group discussions conducted with epileptics and with matched controls in two isolated communities. In one communi ty (Mahenge) a clinic for epilepsy has been operating for over 36 year s, with a public education component during the last four years, where as in the other community (Ruaha) epileptics have only been sporadical ly treated in a small mission dispensary and people have had little op portunity to learn about the nature and modern treatment of convulsive disorders. The responses obtained in focus group discussions reflect the significant change in notions about the illness, in the attitude t oward and in the social status of epileptics in Mahenge, while the peo ple of Ruaha still regard epilepsy as a typical ''African'' affliction fraught with supernatural danger and not effectively treatable by mod ern medicine. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.