Epilepsy, Autism & EEGs

It is widely known that autism and epilepsy are comorbid with each other. Statistics are not very consistent, but it appears that up to 35% of people with autism will develop epilepsy and something like 30% of people with epilepsy already have autism.

My interest in epilepsy is currently just as a comorbidity, since Monty, aged 10 with ASD, has not exhibited any signs of it.  I will refer back to epilepsy in later posts when I attempt to “validate” potential autism interventions.  My logic is that if something has a positive effect across the majority of comorbidities, then I may be on to something.  For example, I found it insightful to read in a small study that nicotine patches reduced the incidence of epileptic attacks by 50%.

I recently came across an excellent, highly readable, paper that I think all parents interested in ASD should read.  It is written by an Israeli lady who is also doing some other very thoughtful research into treating autism.  The research itself is a retrospective study of EEG (Electroencephalography) tests on 56 children done in the US.

Autism and epilepsy: Cause,consequence, comorbidity, or coincidence?

EEG testing is known to be very insightful, but due to cost and availability, is rarely used in autism.  Some children, diagnosed with autism, turn out to have something different.

 Here are some highlights:

·        About 10% of children given a diagnosis of autism are found to have either a paroxysmal EEG pattern, as seen in acquired epileptic aphasia (Landau–Kleffner syndrome), or electrical status epilepticus during sleep, as seen in some children with childhood disintegrative disorder. 

·        None of the children who presented with ‘‘unlikely symptoms,’’ such as febrile convulsions, breath holding spells, and rage episodes, were diagnosed with epilepsy  

·        As many as 40% of the total group with autism had epilepsy, which was symptomatic in most children. Half of the children presented with convulsions, and they all had abnormal electroencephalograms (EEG) and were diagnosed with epilepsy.  

·        About one-quarter of the children presented with staring episodes, half of whom had epilepsy. 

·        None of the children with episodes of rage or breath holding spells had epilepsy 

o   This is the opposite of what many experts assume 

·       Our results, which indicate that clinical suspicion for epilepsy should be high if there is a history of convulsion and staring episodes, are in agreement with other studies showing that nearly all autistic children with seizures also exhibit epileptiform activity on electroencephalograms

 

A short film

Here is a parent-made film, showing the EEG procedure.

Conclusion

If you live in an area where EEGs are on offer, (California seems to be one good place to live) then it looks like a very smart test to have done.  If you were thinking your child’s tantrums and raging were indicative of future epilepsy, you can breathe again.