Knowledge, awareness and attitudes of pharmacy students toward epilepsy

Purpose: Pharmacy students represent a better educated group of society regarding the use of drugs and they are required to grasp the appropriate knowledge of drug use and have positive attitudes toward healthcare issues. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the level of knowledge, awareness and attitude among pharmacy students at a public university in Pakistan. 

Methods: A self-administered questionnaire, validated previously was distributed to the pharmacy students, University of Karachi, Pakistan. The completed questionnaire was collected on the same day. The students were required to respond a series of questions on their knowledge, awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy. 

Results: The questionnaire was distributed to 216 students and the same number responded to the questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were of age group between 21-25 years (69.9%) and rest belonged to age groups 16-20 (21.8%) or 26-30 years (8.3%). The majority of the respondents were female (63%). About 69% students claimed to have knowledge of the cause of epilepsy, 57.9% respondents believed in the curability of epilepsy however 47.2% were unaware of the epilepsy treatment by antiepileptic drugs. Majority, 89.8% of respondents were familiar with the terminology of epilepsy, 10.4% students had attended lecture on epilepsy, while 54.2% had seen the epileptic attack. 

Conclusion: In this study, majority of the students had knowledge of the disease however, majority were deficient in knowledge on the treatment of epilepsy. Hence, there is a need to improve certain aspects of knowledge of epilepsy among pharmacy students.