Epilepsia, 49(4):564–572, 2008 doi: 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2007.01433.x FULL-LENGTH ORIGINAL RESEARCH Public knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy in Kuwait * Abdelmoneim Awad and †Fatma Sarkhoo * Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait, and †Ministry of Health, Kuwait SUMMARY Purpose: The study was conducted to determine the familiarity with, knowledge of, misunderstand- ings, and attitudes toward epilepsy among the Kuwaiti population. Methods: A pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 784 Kuwaiti individu- als, selected from five governorates in Kuwait using a multistage stratified clustered sampling. Results: Seven hundred fifty-five subjects were in- terviewed, and 97.6% reported their awareness about epilepsy. Of these, 51.8% knew someone who had epilepsy, 56.4% had witnessed an epilep- tic seizure, 45.9% believed that epilepsy is a hered- itary disease, 60.4% reported that “all epileptic fits manifest symptoms of generalized tonic–clonic seizure,” 88.3% indicated that putting an object into the patient’s mouth to prevent tongue biting during a seizure is appropriate, and 57.1% stated that drug therapy was the only treatment avail- able for epilepsy. Objections to shake hands with, working with, marrying, and employing epileptic patients were reported by 16.0%, 24.8%, 71.6%, and 45.2%, respectively. Childbirth by epileptic women and allowing children to play with an epileptic child were opposed by 56.3% and 27.7%, respectively. A total of 370 (50.2%) agreed that epilepsy is equiva- lent to psychiatric disorder. Discussion: The present findings have demon- strated that epilepsy is a well-known disease in Kuwait, and that negative attitudes toward epilepsy do prevail in Kuwait. The majority of the nega- tive attitudes were significantly associated with the misunderstanding of epilepsy. Continuing effective educational interventions would be needed in or- der to improve the appropriate understanding of epilepsy, and to ameliorate the social discrimina- tion and misconceptions against epileptic patients. KEY WORDS: Epilepsy, Attitudes, Awareness, Kuwait. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological dis- eases worldwide. It still remains a public health prob- lem, with sociocultural and economical impacts in devel- oping countries (Rwizaw et al., 1992). Several studies have shown the lack of basic knowledge of epilepsy, misunder- standing, and negative attitudes among the general public (Caveness & Gallup, 1980; Canger & Cornaggia, 1985; Jensen & Dam, 1992), epileptic patients and their fam- ily members (Doughty et al., 2003), and even the health care professionals (Beran et al., 1992; Al-Adawi et al., 2001). Stigma has been historically recognized as a ma- jor burden to epileptic patients and their families, and its high level was found to adversely affect the quality of life in patients with epilepsy (Youn et al., 2000; Jacoby Accepted October 15, 2007; Online Early publication January 22, 2008. Address correspondence to Dr. Abdelmoneim Awad, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 24923, Safat 13110, Kuwait. E-mail: amoneim@hsc.edu.kw Blackwell Publishing, Inc. C  2008 International League Against Epilepsy et al., 2005). It was reported that epileptic patients fre- quently experience problems regarding employment (El- Hilu, 1990; Elwes et al., 1991; Jacoby, 1995), education (El-Hilu, 1990; Aldenkamp, 1995), and interpersonal re- lationships (Scambler & Hopkins, 1986; Collings, 1990; El-Hilu, 1990). These problems are always related to the discrimination or misconceptions that epileptic patients are with physical disability, mental retardation, and emotional disturbance (Chung, 1995). Studies to determine the public awareness of, under- standing of, and attitudes toward epilepsy is a neces- sary first step in eliminating social discrimination against epileptic patients (Lim & Pan, 2005). Surveys have been performed in several countries with different cultural back- grounds. These included studies from the Americas (Cave- ness & Gallup, 1980; Baumann et al., 1994; Santos et al., 1998; Young et al., 2002), New Zealand (Hills & MacKen- zie, 2002), Europe (Finke, 1980; Iivanainen et al., 1980; Canger & Cornaggia, 1985; Jensen & Dam, 1992; Mirnics et al., 2001; Jacoby et al., 2004; Diamantopoulos et al., 2006), Asia (Lai et al., 1990; Yamada, 1993; Chung et al., 564