FIRST SEIZURES ASSOCIATED WITH PLAYING ELECTRONIC SCREEN GAMES - A COMMUNITY-BASED STUDY IN GREAT-BRITAIN

Active surveillance by virtually all electroencephalographic departmen ts throughout Great Britain identified 118 patients who had a first se izure while playing an electronic screen game during two 3-month perio ds. Patients were divided into Group A (46 patients)-those for whom th ere was thought to be a definite causal relationship (type 4 photoparo xysmal response); Group B (25 patients)-those for whom there was a pro bable causal relationship (types 1-3 photoparoxysmal response, clinica l evidence of photosensitivity, subsequent recurrent seizures on repea t exposure to electronic screen games, and/or occipital spikes in the resting electroencephalogram); and Group C (47 patients)-those for who m there was no apparent causal relationship. The number of patients in Group C did not exceed that expected by the chance occurrence of two common events (playing electronic screen games and incidence of epilep sy). Most (103/118) of the patients were in the age range of 7 to 19 y ears. Within this age group the annual incidence of first seizures tri ggered by playing electronic screen games (Groups A and B combined) wa s estimated to be 1.5/100,000.