[Clinical features of epilepsy in adolescents]

The epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder in adolescence. Its prevalence is 1.5-2% in these ages. In this work the different epileptic types and syndromes that begin in adolescence are reviewed.

Primary generalized epilepsies are the most frequent group. Its three syndromes, juvenile absences epilepsy, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and epilepsy with generalized with tonic-clonic seizures on awakening, have different clinical and electroencephalographic characteristic but also share a considerable overlapping among them. The partial epilepsies are frequently functional or idiopathic, but not so often as in childhood. The secondary generalized epilepsies are rare, and among them, the progressive myoclonic epilepsies are the main group. The clinical aspects of the different disorders are described.

19% of epilepsies have the onset in adolescence. There is a wide spectrum of clinical syndromes, with different symptoms and prognosis and also different of the corresponding syndromes that begin in childhood.