Misdiagnosis of epilepsy

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7347.1219

BMJ 2002;324:1219 ( 18 May )

Letters

Misdiagnosis of epilepsy

Epilepsy care is deficient for both patients and doctors

Misdiagnosis occurs particularly in children

Epilepsy care is deficient for both patients and doctors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ In their editorial on the misdiagnosis of epilepsy Chadwick and Smith seem to have missed the point.¹ The diagnosisof epilepsy is often difficult and mistakes are often made (byspecialists and non-specialists), so an improvement in epilepsyservices isimperative.

As the editorial says, there are only a derisory 62 paediatric neurologists in the United Kingdom; even at the maximal rateof recruitment to this specialty it will be at least 15 yearsbefore an appreciable proportion of children with epilepsy havean opportunity of meeting such a specialist, let alone being treatedby him or her on a continuingbasis.

The most important improvement in epilepsy services will therefore come from better training for general paediatricians andphysicians, together with more effective ways in which they canshare their difficult cases with specialist neurologists, whoare usually based in tertiary centres. In addition, epilepsy supportservices provided by . . . [Full text of this article]