Eating Epilepsy: EEG and Clinical Study

We studied a 22-year-old woman with eating epilepsy. During 52 days, her seizures were monitored in an inpatient epilepsy center, and their relation to meals, foods, and other variables was assessed. Of a total of 136 seizures observed, 76 occurred during eating and 60 occurred at noneating times. Observation during 6 h of video monitoring detected a rate of type A seizures (head drop, generalized EEG activity) of 1.0 during eating epochs versus 0.21 during noneating epochs (p less than 0.05). Interictal generalized EEG activity consisting of sharp slow-wave complexes was also markedly increased during eating epochs, with mean 16.6 discharges per epoch versus 2.89 during noneating epochs (p less than 0.02). AED levels remained stable during monitoring. Dietary analysis indicated that many types of food seemed to be implicated and that some specific foods were repeated activators.