Management of epilepsy in schools

Ninety two school children in south east London aged 5-15 years and with a diagnosis of epilepsy were identified from the Handicap register kept by the community child health services. Medical information was obtained from hospital discharge summaries. Information about support services for these children and their families by psychiatrists, physiotherapists, educational psychologists, educational welfare officers, and social workers was obtained from questionnaires completed by school doctors and from school medical records. There was a significant increase in the use made of these support services by epileptic children placed in special schools compared with those attending ordinary schools. This is probably due to the additional disabilities of the former (mental subnormality, cerebral palsy etc) rather than epilepsy per se, as there was no significant difference in seizure frequency between the two groups of children.