ABSTRACT
The patient was an 18-year-old right-handed woman who had seizures dating back to the age of 2 years. These initially consisted of staring, picking at clothes, automatisms and pacing the room. She was treated through her childhood with phenobarbital, carbamazepine, phenytoin and primidone. By her adolescence, the patient’s seizures had changed in character. They were now described as thrashing, rocking back and forth, at times striking out in a seemingly purposeful way, and injuring herself, with resultant ecchymoses of the elbow and forehead. Seizures also increased in frequency, so that she was having multiple seizures each day, preventing her from attending school. Medication included primidone, valproate and phenytoin.
