Fits, Faints and Funny Turns

Abstract

Fits and faints in children present problems familiar to all general practitioners and paediatricians. In a recent survey from the National Child Development Study it was reported that no less than 6.7 per cent of a large unselected sample of children had a history of seizures or other episodes of loss of consciousness by the age of 11 years (Ross et al. 1980). This is a rewarding area of paediatric medicine, both diagnostically and therapeutically, and one in which good clinical methods are often of more value than sophisticated investigative techniques.