Before the development of CT scanning, simple skull X-rays or air-encephalograms (in which the structure of the brain was outlined by injected air) were the only techniques available. These have been superseded entirely. Another technique, angiography, is still used in some patients with epilepsy due to a structural cause. In this technique, an iodine-containing solution [...]

Most referrals occur not because family doctors are uncertain as to whether a patient has had a seizure or not, nor because they are seriously concerned in every case about the possibility of serious underlying disease, but for the following reasons:

• People do not like being told they have had an epileptic [...]

Atypical absences (petit mal variant)-This phrase is used in two different ways—to describe absences which are clinically similar to typical absences associated with an EEG record that is not typical, and to describe absences in association with other features which are not typical, of which loss of postural control is the most marked. In these [...]