Health inequalities: more epilepsy education and specialists needed

The UK needs more epilepsy nurses, better social care and empowerment of patients to help address health inequalities, say researchers.

In a new comment in The Lancet Public Health, Prof Angela Hassiotis and Prof Rohit Shankar said that prevention strategies should focus on three aspects: clinicians, patients and society.

The researchers explain that the prevalence of epilepsy is “unevenly distributed by population and geography”. They say 2-3% of all A&E visits are suspected to be related to seizures and linked factors. These include poor quality of life, social deprivation, mental health issues and lack of seizure management knowledge.

The researchers cited another study by Dr Kathryn Bush and colleagues, also published in The Lancet Public Health. This investigated health inequalities in epilepsy. The researchers found that high levels of deprivation were linked to a higher level of new cases of epilepsy.

Prof Hassiotis and Prof Shankar said the first challenge to address is the lack of neurologists and epilepsy specialists. We also need to reduce the difference in the number of specialists in different areas of the country. They say it should be a priority to employ more epilepsy nurses, have joint professional case reviews and involve pharmacists in prescribing medicines.

They added that there is also an “urgent need” to help educate and counsel people about managing their condition. Finally, they say social care staff has an important part to play and needs training and education.

They conclude that these population-wide approaches need to be implemented to tackle issues linked to socioeconomic inequalities.