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Idiopathic generalised epilepsies: not only for the paediatrician

Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
J W Sander;
lsander@ion.ucl.ac.uk

Keywords: epilepsy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The commonest epileptic syndrome is the so-called idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE), which accounts for at least a third of all cases of epilepsy in the community.¹ This proportion is even higher in the paediatric age range. The syndrome is characterised by the presence of generalised tonic clonic, myoclonic, and typical absence seizures on their own or in different combinations. The onset is usually before the age of 16. IGE has a typical electroencephalographic (EEG) pattern with paroxysms of generalised spike and wave and polyspike discharges, which is the hallmark of the syndrome. Age of onset and main seizure type are used to classify IGE further into four main subsyndromes: IGE with tonic-clonic seizures only, childhood absence epilepsy, juvenile absence epilepsy, and juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. As the majority of patients have the onset of IGE in childhood or adolescence, the international classification currently in use only recognises subsyndromes with onset . . . [Full text of this article]

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Idiopathic generalised epilepsy of adult onset: clinical syndromes and genetics

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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2003 74: 192-196. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]