Stigma experienced by primary care givers of persons with Epilepsy

Stigma is society's negative evaluation of particular features or behaviour. Cultural beliefs that define certain conditions negatively may create tainted and discounted identities for affected individuals and their families. The present study was intended to assess the presence and degree of stigma experienced by primary care givers of persons with epilepsy (PCG) and to find out the causal attribution for epilepsy among the PCG. The study was a cross sectional hospital based study. By using purposive sampling techniques 100 Caregivers of persons diagnosed with epilepsy were taken from the OPD (Epilepsy Clinic) of CIP. Family Interview Schedule to assess both stigma and causal attribution (Sartarius et al., 1996) were administered. Median split technique was used to divide respondents into two stigma groups, low and high. It can be seen that the socio-demographic variables (of persons with epilepsy) religion emerged as statistically significant. Hindus in our sample seemed to have higher stigma than both Muslims and Christians. It was found more stigma when persons with epilepsy were younger. There were a significantly high number of care givers of high stigma group attributive influence of depression/unhappiness as a cause of epilepsy in their family member. Although not statistically significant but it was found that stigma tended to be more when care giver’s age was young. It was also found that, those care givers who had attributed no cause it just happened or don't know for epilepsy in their family member experienced more stigma which have important implication in psycho-educational programs and intervention to dispel stigma. Keywords: Stigma, care givers, Epileps