Clinical features of patients with game-induced seizures in the Chinese population

Purpose: To study the clinical characteristics of patients with game-induced seizures in the Chinese population. Method: We assessed 51 patients with various game-induced epileptic seizures. Based on whether they had spontaneous seizures, these 51 patients were classified as two groups. Twenty-seven patients who had both game-induced and spontaneous seizures were referred to as Group I, whereas twenty-four patients that had experienced seizures exclusively while playing specific games were assigned to Group II. All of the related clinical data of the patients was collected and evaluated. Results: The patients in Group I presented with adolescent-onset and related to photosensitive idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), were responsive to valproic acid (VPA) or magnesium valproate (VPA-Mg) therapy, and presented a major seizure-precipitating factor in response to electronic games. While patients in Group II were adult onset and not associated with IGE, showed uncertain responses to VPA and a benign prognosis, and presented major seizure-precipitating factors in response to non-electronic games. Conclusion: There are obvious genetic differences between patients with game-induced epilepsy. It is necessary to differentiate between various types of game-induced seizures and select the corresponding treatment. (C) 2016 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.