CLASSIFICATION OF EPILEPSIES AND EPILEPTIC SYNDROMES IN 2 DIFFERENT SAMPLES OF PATIENTS

We attempted to classify, according to the International Classification of Epilepsies and Epileptic Syndromes, 986 patients consecutively examined during a 13-month period either in a specialized private practice (n = 642) or in an adult neurology unit in a university hospital (n = 344). Without major difficulty, we classified 97% of patients in more or less clearly defined syndromes. Benign frontal and benign psychomotor epilepsies of childhood were represented in this sample of patients. In either partial or generalized idiopathic epilepsies, a diagnosis of epilepsy appears justified even after a single epileptic event when sufficient electroclinical characteristics are present. Patients with symptomatic generalized epilepsies often have to be classified under two or three headings. Many children with a symptomatic generalized epilepsy also experience partial seizures. Alcoholic epilepsy is described as a veritable epileptic syndrome. The distribution of epileptic syndromes was clearly different in the two samples, casting doubt on the value of some epidemiologic surveys based on selected groups of patients.