ABSTRACT
The symptoms that patients describe are largely responsible for the direction of the clinical examination and it is the tempo of the onset and progression of these symptoms that points to the type of pathology causing them. The combination of symptoms and signs leads to the anatomical diagnosis. Headache is one of the most common symptoms encountered in primary care, and certainly is the most common complaint of patients attending the neurologist. It is estimated that one in five of the general population may suffer from headache of sufficient severity to consult a doctor at some time. Patients commonly use the term ‘blackout’ to describe loss of consciousness, when it really means loss of vision, so it is always important to establish carefully the nature of this reported symptom. Epilepsy in the infant indicates some serious metabolic, structural or infective cause.
