ABSTRACT
The study was performed to assess the period prevalence of catamenial epilepsy in Thai female epileptic patients. Such a condition is defined as seizures related to menstruation which occur for at least 2 consecutive months within 1 patient during 4 days prior to and/or 6 days after the onset of menstruation. Patients with regular menstruation aged between 15-50 years attending the Out-Patient Department of Prasat Neurological Institute in Bangkok from 1 November, 1995 to 31 January, 1996 were recruited. Patients and/or their relatives were interviewed directly or by telephone using a questionnaire concerning menstrual history, seizures related to menstruation and they were requested to record these data for 2 further consecutive months. In cases where the interview could not be directly performed, a mailed questionnaire was used instead. All information was considered together with information reviewed from the OPD cards. Forty-six from 467 epileptic patients were considered to have catamenial epilepsy. The period prevalence thus was 98.5 in 1,000 women at risk and the mode of frequency of seizure occurrence was 2 days before menstruation. Generalized seizure was found more common in these patients than partial seizure. In particular, general tonic-clonic seizure and complex partial seizure were the most common for each type, respectively. About 70 per cent of the patients used more than 1 anti-convulsant drugs to control their seizures. Some have received other drug supplements to relieve seizure exacerbation but only mild improvement was observed. No change in body weights measured in 2 or 1 day before menstruation, on the first menstrual day and in 1 day after menstruation was demonstrated in all patients. The results suggest that catamenial epilepsy is one of the clinically significant problems of seizure control in Thai female epileptic patients and multifactors may be involved in this condition.