Fits and faints

This book is concerned with one of the major areas of misdiagnosis in medicine today. It has been estimated that as many as thirty per cent of children typed as 'epileptic' when presenting with loss of consciousness, falls or other paroxysmal episodes have, in fact, non-epileptic attacks. The most common of these conditions, the vagalmediated anoxic seizure or fainting fit, is so frequent that it will be encountered by anyone involved in the practice of clinical medicine in its widest sense. These seizures are discussed in depth using original data and extensively reviewing the literature. Many other less common, but nonetheless important, varieties of fits, faints and 'funny turns' are self-induced by a Valsalva maneuver, and motor events ranging from day-dreaming to the effects of suffocation and brain swelling.