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NEUROLOGY 1986;36:1021
© 1986 American Academy of Neurology

The long-term course of primary generalized epilepsy with persisting absences

Henri Gastaut, MD, Benjamin G. Zifkin, MDCM, FRCP(C), Emilio Mariani, MD and Javier Salas Puig, MD

Institut de Recherches Neurologiques (Drs. Gastaut, Mariani, and Puig), Faculté de Médecine, (WHO Collaborating Center for Teaching and Research in Neurology), Marseille, France; and the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (Dr. Zifkin), Staten Island, and the Department of Neurology, SUNY Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn, NY.

The long-term course of primary generalized epilepsy with absences persisting after the age of 30 to 61 years was studied in 26 patients, each followed clinically and by EEG for 20 to 37 years. Whether treated or not, absences became less frequent, but only rarely ceased, and 92% of patients with persisting absences eventually developed generalized convulsions. EEG background activity did not deteriorate, and the classic spike and wave complexes remained typical in 84% of patients. In 36% of cases, almost all of them women, psychomotor slowing was observed, which did not affect job performance. It was not related solely to duration or severity of epilepsy, or to antiepileptic drugs, and some hormonal mechanism may be partly responsible.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Zifkin, New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, 1050 Forest Hill Road, Staten Island, NY 10314.

Accepted for publication December 18, 1985.




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