[A child with ictal fear as the primary epileptic manifestation]

We report a 4-year-old boy with ictal fear as his primary epileptic manifestation. Following an arrest of motion, the boy started to scream and struggle with an expression of horror on his face. Oral automatisms appeared around the end of the seizure. Complex visual and gustatory hallucinations and pain in the left leg were also observed. Ictal and interictal scalp EEGs revealed epileptic discharges in bilateral frontal regions. Ictal SPECT (99 mTc-HMPAO) showed hyperperfusion in right medial temporal area. These findings suggest that ictal fear associated with other ictal manifestations such as various hallucinations and oral automatisms resulted from rapid spread of epileptic discharges from frontal lobes to the right anterior temporal region.