Fear, misunderstandings and social stigma often lead to people with epilepsy being unemployed and underemployed worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Some 40-60 per cent of people with epilepsy in Germany, Italy and the US are employed, but "these jobs are often below their potential", says the WHO. Some 15-20 per cent are unemployed, while about 20 per cent retire early.
Ms Agnes Mooney of Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association, says Irish people with epilepsy have difficulty getting jobs mainly because employers are not educated about epilepsy. "About 80 per cent of people with epilepsy do not have seizures because they are on medication. In general most jobs are suitable for people with epilepsy."
According to the WHO, "the social effects may vary from country to country and culture to culture, but it is clear that all over the world the social consequences of epilepsy are often more difficult to overcome than the seizures themselves".
As an indication of the misunderstandings and stigma surrounding epilepsy, a survey in China showed that 31 per cent of respondents believed people with epilepsy should not be employed.
Misunderstandings about epilepsy abound around the world. For instance, in Cameroon there's a belief that people with epilepsy are inhabited by the devil. "Evil" is believed to invade the sufferer, causing the convulsions. In parts of India, "attempts are made to exorcise evil spirits from people with epilepsy by tying them to trees, beating them, cutting a portion of hair from their head, squeezing lemon and other juices onto their head and starving them", says the WHO.
In Britain, a law forbidding people with epilepsy to marry was repealed only in 1970, while in the US "many individual states prohibited people with epilepsy from marrying. The last state to repeal this law did so in 1980".
Also in the US, 18 states provided eugenic sterilisation of people with epilepsy until 1956. People with epilepsy are often culturally conditioned to underrate themselves in the workplace. But if people with epilepsy have often been treated as outcasts, many have not let the condition hold them back. Famous people with epilepsy in history include Julius Caesar, Czar Peter the Great of Russia, Pope Pius IX, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Lord Byron.
The WHO established in 1990 that, on average, the cost of the anti-epileptic drug phenobarbitone could be as little as $5 per person per annum. "New diagnostic tools have been developed to aid clinicians in their identification of types of seizures", while antiepileptic drugs are controlling seizures in almost 75 per cent of patients.
Successful surgery is now an option for many people with epilepsy who do not respond to anti-epileptic drug treatment.
However, many of these benefits are only available in more developed countries.
Website: The World Health Organisation: http://www.who.int/
For information on famous people with epilepsy see: http: //www.epilepsiemuseum.de).
jmarms@irish-times.ie
