Highlights
- •Many patients with autism have interictal epileptiform discharges on their EEG without definite clinical seizures
- •The clinical significance of epileptiform activity in patients with autism is controversial
- •It is not clear if epileptiform discharges contribute to cognitive impairment, or are mere epiphenomena of the underlying condition
- •Only a few studies have addressed the question of treating spikes in autistic patients and there are no controlled trials to support the decision to treat or not
- •There is an urgent need to perform controlled clinical trials to answer this important question
Abstract
Many individuals with autism have epileptiform discharges on their EEG without having
definite clinical seizures. The clinical significance of epileptiform activity in
patients with autism is controversial. Some consider it an epiphenomenon of the underlying
condition that should be ignored, and others believe that frequent spikes may contribute
to the cognitive impairment and advocate treatment. Several studies have reported
variable rates of epileptiform activity and variable response to treatment. There
is an urgent need to conduct controlled clinical trials to assess the true incidence
of epileptiform activity in children with autism, develop a risk assessment model,
and study the effectiveness of treatment.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Autism and Epilepsy”.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 03, 2015
Accepted:
February 20,
2015
Received in revised form:
February 18,
2015
Received:
January 21,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
