TY - JOUR AU - Ahmad, Aftab AU - Ashraf, Sadia AU - Mehboob, Riffat PY - 2017/12/05 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Current Status of Neurology and Neuroscience Research in Pakistan JF - Annals of King Edward Medical University JA - Annals KEMU VL - 23 IS - 3 SE - Review Article DO - 10.21649/akemu.v23i3.2027 UR - https://www.annalskemu.org/journal/index.php/annals/article/view/2027 SP - AB - <p>Background: Neurology and neurosciences is most under-recognized field in most of the developing&nbsp;world. There is no statistical data available from Pakistan reporting the exact prevalence of neurological&nbsp; diseases. Most of the studies reported so far are either regional or hospital based.<br>Objectives: The aim of this review was to bring the current situation of neurology and neuroscience into&nbsp;the limelight and highlight the areas where Pakistan is lagging.<br>Methodology: PUBMED and Google scholar were explored for the period 2000-2017 to collect recent&nbsp;information regarding the current situation of neurology and neuroscience in Pakistan.<br>Results: It was observed that Neurology and neuroscience are not well recognized and well established&nbsp;fields in Pakistan, despite of the fact, that Pakistan carries a huge disease burden of neurological genetic&nbsp; disorders due to consanguineous marriages. Most of the medical and other Universities don't have&nbsp;separate departments to cater these areas, consequently, resulting in sufferings of patients and lack of&nbsp;required knowledge among students, researchers and practitioners.<br>Conclusions: There is a great need to do more research, improve diagnostic facilities, build neurology&nbsp;departments in medical universities and compulsory neurology education to all medical students.&nbsp;Research publications from Pakistan in area of neurology and neurosciences are very less compared to<br>neighboring and developed countries. Health care and diagnostic facilities for neurological disorders are&nbsp;inadequate in Pakistan and there are very limited training facilities. Modifiable risk factors such as&nbsp;pollution, smoking, lack of healthcare facilities, low literacy rate, socioeconomic status, lack of&nbsp;awareness, hygiene issues, high ratio of cousin marriages and lack of genetic counseling facilities are&nbsp;contributing factors for neurological diseases in Pakistan. These issues should be properly addressed to&nbsp;prevent these diseases to some extent.</p> ER -