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What is it like? Here's a typical story: Sonia, an 8-year-old girl, "blanks out" for a few seconds and sometimes stops dancing for 10 to 20 seconds during her ballet lessons. Her teacher calls her name, but Sonia doesn't...

Knowing if a person is having a seizure and diagnosing the type of seizure or epilepsy syndrome can be difficult. There are many other disorders that can cause changes in behavior and can be confused with epilepsy. Since the treatment...

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Checking Brain Waves EEG is the name commonly used for electroencephalography (e-LEK-tro-en-SEF-uh-LOG-rah-fee). EEG is an important test for diagnosing epilepsy because it records the electrical activity of the brain. It is safe...

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Interictal (Between Seizures) The background activity in wake is often slow for the patient’s age. This can be constant or transient and permanent slowing has been associated with a poorer cognitive or developmental prognosis....

By Eric Kossoff, MD Perhaps the most common medical test obtained in patients with epilepsy is the EEG (electroencephalogram). This test is done to look for abnormal electrical activity associated with epilepsy and it can...

Frequency and causes of seizures Seizures are common in mitochondrial disease, though a majority of patients do not have seizures. In one database of several hundred patients with mitochondrial cytopathies, about 40–50% have seizures.*...

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