A question of epilepsy.

A training video about how care should be taken in diagnosing epilepsy in children with three cases of young people diagnosed when children. The viewer has a card and should indicate whether each child has epilepsy or another kind of seizure. The first patient, Rebecca, was four when first diagnosed and she was stable until ten years old when she presented some strange repetitive (and seemingly attention seeking) behaviour. A doctor finds no obvious physical cause. To be on the safe side they decide to use an ambulatory cassette recorder to monitor her EEG brain waves and an anomaly was identified. Sharon was noticeably 'vague', had seizures and was diagnosed with petit mal. Subsequently, several treatments were unsuccessful and she missed school. Mark was a normal child until eight, when he had night seizures. Further tests revealed some abnormal EEG readings. At the National Centre for Children with Epilepsy, Dr Gregory Stores, recaps on the cases and gives his opinion. There are several slides showing pathological specimens (courtesy of Dr J. T. Hughes).