A survey of adolescents with epilepsy

Thirty-four adolescents with epilepsy, controls matched for age and sex (A) and controls matched for age, sex and general ability (B), were studied. The adolescents with epilepsy were more likely to arrive at school by car or taxi and to have more difficult behaviour in class. Competitive sports were less popular with them and significantly fewer anticipated ever driving a car. Illness and parental marital problems were not a feature of their families. Their comprehension of reading material was significantly poorer than that of control group A. Within the group, the lowest over-all reading scores were found in children with myoclonic seizures, partial seizures with secondary generalisation, or generalised tonic-clonic seizures; and in those whose EEG findings included two-per-second spike and wave, photosensitivity, generalised slow waves, or generalised spike and wave of non-specific frequency. Right focal slow waves, sharp waves and spikes on EEG were associated with problems of comprehension, even when the over-all reading score was acceptable.