ABSTRACT
Epilepsy is a “collective designation of a group of chronic central nervous system disorders having in common the occurrence of sudden and transitory episodes (seizures) of abnormal phenomena of motor (convulsions), sensory, autonomic, or psychic origin. The seizures are nearly always correlated with abnormal and excessive EEG discharges” (Rail & Schleifer, 1980, p. 448). Epilepsy takes several forms, which can be differentiated according to clinical manifestations and characteristic EEG patterns, as described by Gastaut (1970). It is estimated that the prevalence of all forms of epilepsy combined is between 3 and 6 per 1000 individuals (Hauser, 1978). Although other treatments, such as behavior modification (see Krafft & Poling, 1982b), are sometimes used successfully, drugs provide the most effective and most used means of controlling seizures (Jones & Woodbury, 1982; Rail & Schleifer, 1980).
