DIFFERENTIAL-DIAGNOSIS OF STARING SPELLS IN CHILDREN - A VIDEO-EEG STUDY

Staring is frequently a nonepileptic manifestation in children. To dif ferentiate epileptic versus nonepileptic staring, we reviewed clinical and video-EEG findings in 143 patients, aged 5 months to 43 years, mo nitored for staring episodes, In 79 patients staring was of epileptic origin; 46 had partial seizures and 33 atypical absence, Thirty-five h ad behavioral staring, 8 psychogenic seizures, 1 a migraine equivalent , and in 20 no staring spells were recorded, In all patients with epil eptic staring, epilepsy was suspected clinically. Only 22 of the admis sions for behavioral staring and 3 for pseudoseizures were to exclude a possible nonepileptic phenomenon, Review of their clinical histories revealed that certain findings strongly support a nonepileptic origin . In conclusion, a careful clinical history will differentiate between epileptic and nonepileptic staring episodes in most patients, Video-m onitoring is helpful to adjust treatment or to exclude nonepileptic ev ents in patients with refractory staring spells.