Awareness and attitude towards epilepsy among Saudi Arabia

Background: Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures and by the neurobiological, cognitive, psychological, and social consequences of this condition. The definition of epilepsy requires the occurrence of at least one epileptic seizure

Aim of the Study: To asses and evaluate general population understanding, knowledge and attitude toward epilepsy and epileptic patients

Methods: It's a cross-sectional randomized study conducted in Kingdome of Saudi Arabia. An online questionnaire designed to survey public awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy that posted online and distributed to the public. Estimated about 1000 cases and the statistical package SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis

Result: 20.2% of the participants have a family member with Epilepsy. When asked if they can define Epilepsy; [39.6%] from the Southern region believe that they can, followed by the rest of the regions with similar percentages. 40.3% of female participants knew the causes of epilepsy and also 40.3% of males. The western region was leading with 29% knowing the causes of Epilepsy. [30.4%] of females knew how to handle a seizing patient while only [22.4%] of males knew how. The Western region had the highest positive response [31.5%]. A high percentage of Males [81.2%] did not think that there're different levels of Epilepsy while only [4.3%] of females agree on that. Most the responses received from males [43.6%], females [43.6%] and by regional division; [40%] West, [49%] South, [41.8%] North, [45.5%] Centre, [47.1%] East, agreed that epilepsy isn't a genetic disorder. [36.5%] of females did not think that epilepsy affects the brain function; [29.1%] of males, [34.9%] West, [37.8%] Central, [41.4%] East, [34.5%] North and [22.9%] South had the same opinion

Conclusion: we noticed that the awareness and attitudes of the Saudi public toward epilepsy is less than expected especially from college students. We plan to target all our community from the different level of education and regions for more education in order to lower this stigma of epilepsy

Poly cystic ovarian syndrome and vit D correlation with fertility: review article

Over the past few decades, vitamin D was proposed to be highly influential on female fertility and reproductive health. Its role was extensively studied and evaluated specifically in females with polycystic ovarian syndrome

Objectives: the aim of this research was to study the correlation between vitamin D and fertility in general, and in polycystic ovarian syndrome-associated infertility in particular

Methods: we searched Cochrane Library and PubMed for articles addressing the impact and role of vitamin D in fertility issues in females with polycystic ovary disease. Specifically-related topics were carefully reviewed and analyzed to summarize their conclusive results

Results and Discussion: Vitamin D was lower in females with PCOS and vitamin D administration had increased its level, improved metabolic disturbance and shortened inter-menstrual intervals in those patients. Patients with high vitamin D levels had a better success rate of invitro fertilization. However, it did not affect the time to pregnancy in PCOS women

Conclusion: Vitamin D is beneficial for improving metabolic as well as reproductive functions in women with PCOS. It is also essential for successful in-vitro fertilization, and it is probably protective against endometriosis. However, results from different studies are contradictory, and still there is no solid evidence that there is a cause-effect relationship between vitamin D and fertility