ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM IN THE PITRESSIN HYDRATION TEST FOR EPILEPSY

Abstract

THE PROBLEM IN A LARGE number of patients with alterations of consciousness and convulsive seizures there is difficulty in establishing the diagnosis of epilepsy because the seizures cannot be observed and the electroencephalogram is not sufficiently abnormal to warrant a probable diagnosis of paroxysmal disorder. The necessity of arriving at a diagnosis with reasonable certainty is particularly great in military neuropsychiatry. Army regulation requires confirmation of the history by a medical officer, who must witness a seizure or an abnormal electroencephalogram. Concerning such witnessing of a seizure, Roseman1pointed out how rarely a qualified observer has the opportunity to observe a convulsive seizure in the wards of a military hospital. As to the value of the electroencephalogram, Gibbs, Gibbs and Lennox2found that in a series of 730 adult epileptic patients the electroencephalogram gave little diagnostic aid in 47.1 per cent. This problem is of long standing, and