Epilepsy Day

Ludhiana, November 17, 2014: Epilepsy Day is celebrated in the month of November every year in India. There are about 10 million people with epilepsy in India. These people not only suffer from epileptic but a whole lot of medical, social and emotional problems. Moreover, epileptic seizures can rarely be the cause of death in these people. Death in people with epilepsy can be due accidents (e.g., people having epileptic seizures while driving, fire accidents while cooking or drowning) or otherwise unexplained. Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) has been recently recognised and is a subject of intense research.

The department of Neurology at Dayanand Medical College & Hospital is actively involved in the care of people with epilepsy as well as research. Dr. Gagandeep Singh was recipient of the University College, London Grand Challenges Initiative Grant along with Professor J.S. Duncan and Dr. Caroline Selai at the UCL. The project is study the prospect of marriage in people with epilepsy. Epilepsy is an intensely stigmatizing disorder and because of the stigma and misperceptions, people with epilepsy are disregarded from marital alignment during the match-making process. The fact is that people with epilepsy can get married without much problem and generally have no major problems during conception, pregnancy and childbirth. Not only this epilepsy does not appear to be a hereditary disorder in most cases.

Further a grant worth Rs. 100,00,000 by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been recently sanctioned to the Department for piloting a model for community care of people with epilepsy in Ludhiana District. The project will deliver care and medications to people with epilepsy for a period of 3 years. Furthermore, the Government of Punjab, vide its letter no.  dated, as conveyed by Civil Surgeon Dr. Subhash Batta has undertaken to sustain the project beyond the three years of the grant.

Dr. Gagandeep Singh has undertaken fellowship training in Epilepsy for a period of one year at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, London and is currently Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University College, London. Dr. J. S. Goraya under took his training in Paediatric Neurology at St. Christopher Hospital for children at Philadellphia, USA.

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