Common non-epileptic disorders in children

  Non-epileptic seizure disorders are very common in children, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from seizures. After using video EEG monitoring technology, many of them have been clearly diagnosed because the seizure manifestations and EEG changes can be clearly recorded. In addition to the more familiar sleep disorders such as sleepwalking, night terrors, and sleep myoclonus that are not something seizures, there are a number of disorders that need to be differentiated: 1. Breath-holding seizures: apnea that occurs in children during violent crying, mostly in infants and children from 6 months to 1 year old office. Breath-holding is often a strong reaction to anger or external stimuli, mostly occurs when angry or frightened, manifested as a blue face, apnea, severe generalized convulsions, corkscrew and loss of consciousness. Consciousness is normal when breathing is restored, there is no drowsiness after the attack, the EEG is normal, and the attack never occurs during sleep. The disease can remit on its own, and seizures are usually reduced after the age of 3-5 years, and basically no seizures after the age of 6 years. Treatment is based on behavior modification and education, and does not require medication.  2, tic disorder: involuntary movement disorder that occurs in childhood, the onset of most before the age of 14 years, the average age of 7 years, male prevalence. The etiology and pathogenesis are unclear. The characteristic manifestations of tics are non-rhythmic stereotyped, rapid, repetitive, and brief contractile movements of one or more parts of the muscles or muscle groups. There are three clinical types: transient tic disorder, which is the most common; chronic motor or vocal tic disorder; and tic-arousal syndrome (Tourette). Clinical manifestations can range from simple facial muscle twitching to complex whole-body movements. Usually, the head is the first site, frowning, blinking, pouting, shaking the head, nodding, shrinking the nose, turning the neck, shrugging the shoulders, shaking the hands, stamping the feet, etc., may be accompanied by vocalization in the throat, or even repetitive obscenities, and some have abnormal mood, inattention, hyperactivity, etc. The seizures can be aggravated by anxiety, fatigue, irritability and excitement, and disappear during sleep. Involuntary movements can be controlled by the will for several minutes to several hours. EEG sometimes shows non-specific abnormalities, mainly diffuse waves or spikes. Most children with tics can improve with behavior modification and psychological counseling and do not require medication. In a few severe cases, medications such as haloperidol and Tebretol may be given in conjunction with behavioral therapy. The stereotypical, non-rhythmic, multi-site nature of the twitch movements and the subjective restraint of the disease can be differentiated from simple partial seizures and myoclonic seizures with the help of video EEG.  3, habitual leg rubbing action: often occurs in children 1-3 years old, more common in females, refers to the action of rubbing the perineum, commonly known as “masturbation”. The symptoms may initially be local eczema, inflammation caused by itching, and then develop into habitual action. The disease occurs before going to sleep or just woke up before getting up, infant episodes can be manifested as the two lower limbs crossed inward, clenched to do leg rubbing action, continuous rhythm; early childhood children can ride the legs across the body on some object twisted to rub. The rubbing is accompanied by facial flushing and slight sweating on the forehead or the whole body, but the mind is always clear and can be stopped when disturbed. As the age of the patient increases, the habitual seizures gradually decrease and stop.  4, vitamin D deficiency hand-foot convulsions: mostly seen in infancy, mainly due to vitamin D deficiency caused by hypocalcemia, increased neuromuscular excitability, recurrent hand-foot convulsions, convulsions, laryngospasm, etc.. It is well treated with calcium supplementation. The clinical manifestations are sudden facial twitching without seizure, two eyes rolled up, and twitching of limbs, accompanied by blue lips, incontinence, and mostly unconsciousness. Laboratory tests reveal that total blood calcium and blood ionized calcium are reduced.  5, episodic abdominal pain: first of all, we should exclude the abdominal pain caused by organic diseases. This disease is called common in children, and more than 90% are functional abdominal pain. The duration of abdominal pain episodes, the degree of pain varies, the frequency of episodes varies, and can occur both during the day and at night. The pain is usually located around the umbilicus and is often associated with anxious and stressful events, and may be accompanied by dramatic reactions, such as the child covering the stomach, bowing and rolling all over the floor, and may be accompanied by pallor, nausea and vomiting, with no abnormal manifestations between attacks. Recurrent episodes of abdominal pain are often diagnosed as abdominal pain epilepsy. In fact, simple abdominal pain epilepsy is rare and can be identified by video EEG.