癲癇患者尋求中醫藥治療的探討

Survey of Seeking Help Behavior of Epileptic Patients for the Traditional Chinese Medicine

從中國醫藥學院台中附設醫院神經科，這兩年來求診的144名癲癇病人中，分析其臨床資料得知，有54.2%的病人在求診過程中，曾尋求中醫藥的治療，這些病人平均罹患癲癇的時間比不曾使用中醫藥治療之病人者為長；分別是14.6年對5.7年。平均發病年齡也有較早傾向，分別是17.2歲對24.3歲；年齡分佈則顯示出以21到40歲的患者最多，佔所有病人的38.9%。當初使用中醫藥治療的考量因素，在允許多重選擇情況下，乃是以希望能根治疾病為最多，佔76.9%；其次才是因為西醫藥的副作用大(30.8%)，和西醫藥無法控制(20.5%)。然而，這些病人都已放棄單獨使用中醫藥治療。究其原因，則以沒有效果為最主要的因素。當重新問及中醫藥如確能幫助病情時，這些病人中仍有大部份的病人(56.4%)願意接受。

The possible roles and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of epilepsy were studied in 144 patients. Among them, 54.2% of patients had an experience to traditional Chinese medicine treatment (ETCMT). The average duration of disease was 14.6 years in ETCMT patients and was 5.7 years in non-experience to traditional Chinese medicine treatment (NETCMT) patients. The average age of seizure onset was 17.2 years in ETCMT patients and was 24.3 years in NETCMT patients. The age of the most patients in ETCMT was 21-40. The most popular consideration to choose Chinese medicine treatment in ETCMT patients were to cure the epilepsy in 76.9%, to avoid the side effects of anticonvulsants in 30.8% and due to the poor control by anticonvulsants in 20.5%. All ETCMT patients had abandoned traditional Chinese medicine when they were attending our clinic mainly because of unsatisfactory control of the epileptic seizure. However, being asked if traditional Chinese medicine will do help in some way for the epileptic patients, 56.4% of ETCMT patients agreed to receive it again.