The headache under-response to treatment (HURT) questionnaire, an outcome measure to guide follow-up in primary care: development, psychometric evaluation and assessment of utility.

Background: Headache disorders are both common and burdensome but, given the many people affected, provision of health care to all is challenging. Structured headache services based in primary care are the most efficient, equitable and cost-effective solution but place responsibility for managing most patients on health-care providers with limited training in headache care. The development of practical management aids for primary care is therefore a purpose of the Global Campaign against Headache.

Changes in knowledge, attitude, and practice of people with epilepsy and their families after an intervention in rural China.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a combined intervention on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of people with epilepsy and their families in rural areas of China, random samples of people with epilepsy and their family members from the intervention populations completed questionnaires prior to the intervention (2002, N=975) and 2 years later (N=950). There was no significant difference in important demographic variables between the two samples. KAP levels of patients and their family members improved over the study period.

Global campaign against epilepsy: assessment of a demonstration project in rural China.

Objective: The Global Campaign Against Epilepsy demonstration project in rural China aimed: to reduce the treatment gap and morbidity of people with epilepsy by using community-level interventions; to train and educate health professionals; to dispel stigma; to identify potential for prevention and to develop models of integration of epilepsy control into the local health systems. We report the overall results of the demonstration project, focusing on the prevalence and the change in the treatment gap of epilepsy after an intervention.

Methods: Door-to-door epidemiological surveys were carried out before, and 6 months after the end of, an intervention project for epilepsy in rural settings in five provinces of China.

Meanings of epilepsy in its sociocultural context and implications for stigma: findings from ethnographic studies in local communities in China and Vietnam.

We investigated beliefs about the causes, course, and treatment of epilepsy and its impact on quality of life (QOL) in key target groups, using "mini-ethnographies" involving 141 in-depth interviews and 12 focus groups in China, and 84 in-depth interviews and 16 focus groups in Vietnam. Data were analyzed thematically, using a qualitative data analysis package. In both countries, beliefs about causes and triggers of epilepsy and seizures were a complex interweaving of Western, traditional, and folk medicine concepts.

Epilepsy stigma perception in an urban area of a limited-resource country.

Objective: To estimate the perception of stigma attached to epilepsy in an urban society of a limited-resource country, Brazil.

Methods: We applied a validated Stigma Scale of Epilepsy (SSE) cross-sectionally to 1850 people from all regions within the metropolitan area of Campinas, following a sampling selection methodology (95% confidence interval and error of 2.3).

Demonstration project on epilepsy in Brazil: outcome assessment.

Purpose: To assess the outcome of patients with epilepsy treated at primary care health units under the framework of the demonstration project on epilepsy in Brazil, part of the WHO/ILAE/IBE Global Campaign Against Epilepsy.

Method: We assessed the outcome of patients treated at four primary health units. The staff of the health units underwent information training in epilepsy.

Teachers perception about epilepsy.

Purpose: To identify in a town of Brazil the knowledge, attitude and perception of epilepsy in teachers of elementary schools and to compare these before and after a training exercise.

Methods: Teachers of nine public schools of Barão Geraldo, Campinas, Brazil completed a questionnaire. Two researchers had meetings with teachers, presenting the Global Campaign "Epilepsy out of the shadows", when the questionnaire was first completed by all attendees.

Demonstration Project on Epilepsy in Brazil: situation assessment.

Purpose: To provide a situation assessment of services for people with epilepsy in the context of primary health care, as part of the Demonstration Project on Epilepsy in Brazil, part of the WHO/ILAE/IBE Global Campaign 'Epilepsy out of the shadows'.

Methods: We performed a door-to-door epidemiological survey in three areas to assess the prevalence of epilepsy and its treatment gap. We surveyed a sample of 598 primary health care workers from different regions of Brazil to assess their perceptions of the management of people with epilepsy in the primary care setting.

Prevalence and pattern of epilepsy treatment in different socioeconomic classes in Brazil.

Purpose: The worldwide prevalence of epilepsy is variable, estimated at 10//1,000 people, and access to treatment is also variable. Many people go untreated, particularly in resource-poor countries.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of epilepsy and the proportion of people not receiving adequate treatment in different socioeconomic classes in Brazil, a resource-poor country.

Assessing the disease burden due to epilepsy by disability adjusted life year in rural China.

Purpose: To demonstrate the application of Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) as an aid in health outcome measures to evaluate the epilepsy disease burden in rural China and to provide Chinese data to achieve a better understanding of disease burden due to epilepsy.

Methods: The DALY is the sum of the number of years of survival with disability (Years Lived with Disability, YLD) and the number of years lost because of premature mortality (Years of Life Lost, YLL). We calculated the YLD based on the prevalence survey of epilepsy among 66,393 people sampled in Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Ningxia, Shanghai, and Shanxi provinces in 2000.

Premature mortality in people with epilepsy in rural China: a prospective study.

Background: In China, few studies have described annual mortality associated with epilepsy in a general population and these have provided a range of 3.0-7.9 deaths per 100,000 people.

Epilepsy Care in the World: results of an ILAE/IBE/WHO Global Campaign Against Epilepsy survey.

Purpose: Information about existing resources available within the countries to tackle the huge medical, social, and economic burden caused by epilepsy is lacking. To fill this information gap, a survey of country resources available for epilepsy care was conducted within the framework of the ILAE/IBE/WHO Global Campaign Against Epilepsy.

Methods: The study represents a major collaborative effort involving the World Health Organization (WHO), the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE).

WHO/WFN Survey of neurological services: a worldwide perspective.

According to the findings obtained in the context of a Global Initiative on Neurology and Public Health carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), there has been a lack of reliable and comparative data on services and other resources for neurological disorders in many parts of the world. In view of these findings and in collaboration with the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), WHO has recently organized an international Survey of Country Resources for Neurological Disorders, which involved 109 countries and covered over 90% of the world's population. This large WHO/WFN collaborative endeavour collected expert information on a number of aspects of neurological care provision around the world including availability of neurological services in primary care; human resources for neurological disorders; sub-specialized neurological services; primary method of financing of neurological care; and disability benefits for patients with neurological disorders.

Efficacy assessment of phenobarbital in epilepsy: a large community-based intervention trial in rural China.

Background: Many people with epilepsy need not experience further seizures if the diagnosis and treatment are correct. Most epilepsy patients have convulsions, which are usually fairly easy to diagnose. This study tested a model for treatment of people with convulsive forms of epilepsy at primary health-care level in rural areas of China.

[Managing epilepsy in the primary care network in Brazil: are health professionals prepared?].

Objective: To assess attitudes and beliefs concerning epilepsy held by physicians and allied health professionals who work in the primary care network in Brazil.

Methods: The data were collected during a national family and community medicine conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 2004, which was attended by 1,200 health professionals from throughout the country. Two questionnaires were used, one for physicians and another for nonphysician health workers.

Prevalence of epilepsy its treatment gap and knowledge, attitude and practice of its population in sub-urban Senegal an ILAE/IBE/WHO study.

A door-to-door survey was used to determine the prevalence of epilepsy among 4500 people within the Pikine Health District (population 480,000) Senegal. Prevalence was 14.2/1000, and 23.

The global campaign against epilepsy in Africa.

One of the leading brain disorders in developing countries is represented by epilepsy. It is estimated that 80% of people suffering from epilepsy around the world, reside in developing world such as Africa. Many perinatal and postnatal causes are brain-stressers in people suffering from malnutrition and low economical conditions.

The prevalence and treatment gap in epilepsy in China: an ILAE/IBE/WHO study.

The authors carried out a door-to-door survey to determine the prevalence of epilepsy among 55,000 people in China. The lifetime prevalence was 7.0/1000, and 41% of all persons had never received appropriate treatment.

Stability of exploratory eye movements as a marker of schizophrenia--a WHO multi-center study. World Health Organization.

The exploratory eye movements of patients with schizophrenia reportedly differ from those of patients without schizophrenia and healthy controls. In an attempt to determine whether exploratory eye movements provide valid markers for schizophrenia, the present collaborative study was conducted in six countries to analyze the stability of and variation in the following parameters of exploratory eye movements: the number of eye fixations (NEFs) and mean eye scanning length (MESL) in a retention task; the cognitive search score (CSS) that indicates how frequently the eye focused on each important area of a figure in order to recognize it in a comparison task; and the responsive search score (RSS), which reflects the frequency of eye fixations on each section of a figure in response to questioning in a comparison task. In addition, we investigated the validity of the currently employed discriminant function to extract a common feature of schizophrenia by applying it to the findings of the present study.

Prophylactic efficacy of lithium administered every second day: a WHO multicentre study.

Objectives: To study the prophylactic efficacy of lithium administered every second day to patients with bipolar disorder or recurrent unipolar depressive disorder.

Methods: The study was carried out as a WHO multicentre study in five different psychiatric clinics: Russia (Moscow), Canada (Montreal), India (Lucknow), Germany (Munich) and South Korea (Pusan), with the lithium tablets being supplied from Denmark (Copenhagen). Participation in the study was conditional on the patient having been in prophylactic lithium treatment for the preceding 2-year period and having been free of depressive or manic phases during the preceding 6 months.

The effect of vitamin E addition to acute neuroleptic treatment on the emergence of extrapyramidal side effects in schizophrenic patients: an open label study.

The anti-oxidant vitamin E has been reported to be effective in the treatment of tardive dyskinesia. The present open label study examined the effect of supplemental therapy with vitamin E on acute extrapyramidal symptoms and cell enzymes in patients receiving neuroleptic drugs. Thirty-nine hospitalized schizophrenic patients were randomly assigned to two groups: group 1 (n = 20) was treated with neuroleptics, and group 2 (n = 19) with neuroleptics combined with a fixed dose of vitamin E (600 IU/day), administered for two weeks.