A comprehensive review of epilepsy in the Arab world

• No fundamental data on epilepsy in 10 countries.
• Prevalence of lifetime epilepsy is much higher than reported previously.
• Only about 56% of lifetime epilepsy burden has active seizures.
• Google search engine is a useful time-saving source for epilepsy literature.

PurposeWe conducted a comprehensive review of the epidemiology of epilepsy in the Arab world.MethodsEpidemiological literature about epilepsy from 22 countries of the Arab League was searched in French and English using several keywords (specific and wider) and combinations, individually for each country. The search was conducted on Google first and then on PubMed. The results are presented as counts, proportions, and medians along with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Unpaired t-test with unequal variance and regressions were performed, altogether and individually, for lifetime and active epilepsy prevalence as well as incidence.ResultsGoogle provided 21 prevalence, four camp and nine incidence estimates while PubMed provided ten such estimates; none of them was identified by Google. No epidemiological data about epilepsy was found from 10/22 countries. Excluding pediatric studies, 13 prevalence estimates from six countries were identified. Including pediatric studies, 21 estimates from nine countries were found. Median lifetime and active epilepsy prevalence were 7.5/1000 (95% CI 2.6–12.3, range 1.9–12.9) and 4.4/1000 (95% CI 2.1–9.3, range 2.1–9.3), respectively, excluding pediatric studies (1984–2014, N = 244081). Median incidence was 56.0/100,000 (n = 9, N = 122484, 95% CI 13.7–147.9, range 10.4–190).ConclusionThe fact that no epidemiological data about epilepsy is available in the public domain for almost one half of all Arab countries offers opportunities for future research. This thorough review of existing literature demonstrates a prevalence of epilepsy three times higher than previously reported for this region. The median incidence is similar to other regions of the world, e.g. North America. Google yielded additional valuable sources not indexed in PubMed and provided pertinent references more quickly.