Clinical profile of epilepsy, in a tertiary care centre of North-west India.

The present study has been undertaken in a tertiary care centre of North-west India to know the clinical profile of epilepsy and response to drug therapy with special reference to study the effect of reduction of dosage of anti-epileptic drug after a seizure-free interval of two years. A total of 904 patients were selected during the period January, 2001 to October, 2006 who attended OPD clinic of the department of neurology, SMS Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur. Datailed clinical history was taken, general physical examination, routine blood examination, ECG and CT scan along with MRI (brain) in some cases were carried out. Of all the cases, sex ratio (male : female) was 2:1. A high proportion of cases (62.83%) were from low socio-economic group, 41.15% had normal EEG, 532 patients had normal CT scan (out of 800 cases). Single drug therapy was instituted in 71.67% cases. Patients went follow-up for 3 years. Most of the cases proved to be seizure-free after 2 years. Average maintenance dosage in patients on monotherapy can be reduced after a seizure-free interval of 2 years.