1043-3155 Pediatr Neurol Briefs pedneurbriefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs Pediatric Neurology Briefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs 2166-6482 1043-3155 2166-3155 Pediatric Neurology Briefs Publishers Chicago, IL, USA PNB-12-72-b 10.15844/pedneurbriefs-12-9-12 Attention Deficit and Learning Disorders Neurology Pediatrics Nervous System Diseases Child Development Brain Diseases Neurosurgery Child Infant Cognitive and Autistic Epileptiform Regression http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0173-7931 Millichap J. Gordon MD 1 2 * Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Correspondence: Dr. J. Gordon Millichap, E-mail: jgmillichap@northwestern.edu 09 1998 01 04 2016 12 9 72 72 Copyright: © 1998 The Author(s) 1998 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Autism and autistic epileptiform regression with occipital spikes

Seven children, ages 3 to 8 years, presenting with autism or autistic regression and seizures had occipital spikes, characteristic of benign epilepsies, in a report from New York University Medical Center.

 Autistic Regression Mental Retardation Hyperactive Behavior

Seven children, ages 3 to 8 years, presenting with autism or autistic regression and seizures had occipital spikes, characteristic of benign epilepsies, in a report from New York University Medical Center. Clinical findings included borderline or mental retardation, delayed or regressing language development, autistic and hyperactive behavior, and chronic motor tics. Seizures consisted of absence or myoclonic patterns, usually resistant to antiepileptic drugs. A causal relation between occipital spikes and cognitive and language regression was suggested, reflecting extension of epileptiform activity into temporal and posterior-parietal areas. [1]

COMMENT. The relation between EEG epileptiform abnormalities and cognitive, language, and behavioral disorders is controversial. The correlation between the seizure, behavioral, and language disorders in children with Landau-Kleffner syndrome and autistic epileptiform regression is debatable. A temporal relation between treatment with antiepileptic drugs and clinical improvement is sometimes supportive, but responses are often unsustained. This report is the first to relate occipital spikes or spike-wave epileptiform EEGs to cognitive, language, and autistic regression. See Progress in Pediatric Neurology II, 1994;pp220-226.

Nass R Gross A Devinsky O Autism and autistic epileptiform regression with occipital spikes Dev Med Child Neurol 1998 Jul 40 7 453 8 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1998.tb15395.x 9698058