Reading-induced epilepsy: three new cases

INTRODUCTION: Primary epilepsy of reading is a rare syndrome in which patients present with mandibular myoclonia when reading texts. Seizures are also frequently provoked by other stimuli. Occasionally they may be followed by generalized tonic-clonic seizures. CLINICAL CASES: We present the clinical features and electroencephalographs of three patients with epilepsy of reading, one of them also had seizures when playing chess and after doing arithmetic and the third after reading music. Treatment with valproic acid and clonazepam completely controlled the seizures in all three patients. In two cases we saw epileptiform activity on EEG whilst they were reading, although the basal EEG was normal. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that epilepsy of reading is under-diagnosed and emphasize the importance of careful questioning of epileptic patients as to factors which may precipitate the seizures. In view of the social problems which may arise, early recognition of the syndrome is important for the patient.