Sex differences among epileptic patients: a comparison of epilepsy and its impacts on demographic features, clinical characteristics, and management patterns in a tertiary care hospital in Egypt.

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions. We aimed to identify sex differences in the demographic, clinical features, and treatment strategies in epileptic patients. Objectives: To analyze and compare the differences in the impact of epilepsy on the socio-demographic characteristics of male and female patients along with gender differences in various types of epilepsies and treatment strategies. Material and methods: A record-based study for 1000 individuals attending the epilepsy outpatient clinic. The medical records were reviewed through a predesigned questionnaire to obtain all relevant data. Statistical analysis: Data was summarized using range, mean, standard deviation, and median interquartile range for quantitative variable or frequency and percentage for the qualitative ones. Comparison between groups was done using chi-square test. Results: Females were more illiterate and unemployed compared to males. Tonic-clonic seizures were more frequent in males. Specific epileptic syndromes as juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) were more frequent in females (p = 0.01). More males had an underlying secondary etiology (p = 0.001). The most common drug used was valproate (51.2%) which was more utilized by males. Conclusions: Significant differences between both sexes were observed in certain social impacts in addition to seizure syndromes, etiology, and drug utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]