The Classification of Epileptic Seizures and Epileptic Syndromes

The epilepsies are a heterogeneous group of symptom complexes, mostly empirically determined, whose common feature is the recurrence of seizures caused by abnormal neuronal discharge, usually arising from the cortex of the brain. The disorders are, of course, paroxysmal and often unpredictable; clear definition of even the seizures themselves has not proved easy, let alone the possible epileptic syndromes in patients.