Call Centre Workers: An Emerging Class of People with Epilepsy

Background and Objective: The business process outsourcing industry in India employs more than 350,000 workers. Call centres, run by these companies, operate round the clock. This creates work schedules that involve working overnight resulting in sleep disturbance. Sleep deprivation is well known to lead to seizures.1 Nonepileptic latently photosensitive individuals may experience a first photosensitive seizure by exposure to strong photic stimulation. Electronic screen is inherently a flickering medium because computer picture is made up of a series of frames that occur at a rate of 25/s or 30/s.2 Hence computer is a common precipitant of photosensitive seizures. Sleep deprivation further reduces the seizure threshold of predisposed individuals exposed to computer screens. The purpose of the present study is to report high occurrence of idiopathic first seizure in call centre workers and to identify factors that trigger their seizures. Methods: Seventy four call centre workers who presented with history of seizure for the first time in their life were studied. Contrast enhanced MRI brain was normal in 52 patients. Clinicoinvestigatory profile of these 52 patients was studied in detail. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was performed in all the patients. All patients were followed for an average period of 6 months to 2 years. Results: The age of the 52 patients ranged from 18 years to 30 years. There were 32 males and 2