[Seizure-inducing factors in the patients with childhood epilepsy]

We evaluated the seizure-inducing factors in 264 patients with childhood epilepsy. One hundred and thirty-six patients (51.5%) exhibited some kind of inducing factors. Non-specific inducing factors were commonly recognized, such as "febrile state" (29.2%), "fatigue after exercise" (15.2%), "sleep disturbance" (9.1%), "psychic stress" (8.3%) and "emotional change" (6.8%). Specific inducing factors, which related to reflex epilepsy, was recognized in only 7 patients. "Febrile state" was dominant in young children, but the other nonspecific inducing factors were dominant in adolescent. Incidences and kinds of inducing factors also related to the epileptic syndromes an seizure prognosis. The patients with symptomatic partial epilepsies (64.3%) and grand mal on awakening (85.7%) had significantly more inducing factors, and the patients with refractory seizures had a higher incidence and more variable kinds of inducing factors than the patients with well-controlled seizures. These results suggest that seizure-inducing factors are recognized in children as well as in adults, and the clarification of inducing factors is important to the management of epilepsy, particularly of intractable epilepsy.