Management of epilepsy through indigenous traditional and Western approaches in Africa: A systematic review

Health SA Gesondheid

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Management of epilepsy through indigenous traditional and Western approaches in Africa: A systematic review
 
Creator Chabangu, Qolile Maputle, Maria S. Lebese, Rachel T.
 
Subject Traditional management; epilepsy epilepsy; indigenous traditional management; spiritual healers; traditional healers; effectiveness
Description Background: Reaction to epilepsy management has been described as moulded by traditional beliefs, despite the reported progress of anti-epilepsy medication. In Africa, traditional healers are seen as essential in providing epilepsy care, yet little is known about their epilepsy care.Aim: This manuscript aimed to systematically review and summarise the various indigenous traditional and Western methods of epilepsy management and their effectiveness in Africa.Setting: This study is conducted in Africa.Methods: A systematic review was performed, searching MEDLINE (through PubMed), Google Scholar and ScienceDirect data from 2000 to December 2021. The search strategies used terms and medical subject headings ‘traditional methods’ AND ‘epilepsy’ AND ‘management’ AND ‘Africa’. The bibliography of the included articles was manually searched. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials tool were used to identify the validity of studies.Results: The search generated 17 927 articles. After screening for titles and abstracts, duplicate entries were removed and full texts of 22 articles were reviewed. After reading full texts, 12 articles met the inclusion criteria. The themes identified from synthesised data were indigenous traditional and Western methods of epilepsy management.Conclusion: Traditional and faith-based healers were perceived to provide frontline care for people living with epilepsy resulting in considerable delays in seeking anti-epilepsy medication initiation. Furthermore, taking anti-epilepsy treatment was not adequately adhered to.Contribution: Findings would contribute to the body of essential information to create awareness and upskill the community that epilepsy is like any medical condition that needs medical care.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor GladAfrica Epilepsy Foundation Research & Publication Committee UNIVEN
Date 2022-11-22
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Systematic review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1984
 
Source Health SA Gesondheid; Vol 27 (2022); 8 pages 2071-9736 1025-9848
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1984/html https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1984/epub https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1984/xml https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/1984/pdf
 
Coverage — 2000 - 2022 literature search of both qualitative and quantitative studies conducted from year 2000 to date was conducted from PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar sites that studied traditional and western methods of epilepsy management in Africa.
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Qolile Chabangu, Maria S. Maputle, Rachel T. Lebese https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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