Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The treatment of epilepsy in autism

  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Autism is associated with epilepsy. One third of the population of people with autism have developed seizures in early adult life. In spite of this well-known association, little is known about the treatment of epilepsy in autism. This paper reviews the sparse literature and reports a systematic case-record study of the treatment of epilepsy in autism. Some practical guidelines for clinicians are provided. Research in the field of epilepsy in autism is highly warranted.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (1980).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed). Washington DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (1987).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, J.-P., Deschatrette, A., & Delwarde, M. (1981). Autisme convulsif?Pédiatrie, 5. 353–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohman, M., Bohman, I. L., Björck, P. O., & Sjöholm, E. (1983). Childhood psychosis in a northern Swedish county: Some preliminary findings from an epidemiological survey. In M. H. Schmidt & H. Remschmidt (Eds.),Epidemiological approaches in child psychiatry (Vol. 2, pp. 164–173). Stuttgart: Thieme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryson, S. E., Clark, B. S., & Smith, I. M. (1988). First report of a Canadian epidemiological study of autistic syndromes.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 29, 433–445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, M. (1987). Drug treatment of infantile autism. In H. Y. Meltzer (Ed.),Psychopharmacology: The third generation of progress, (pp. 1225–1231) New York: Raven Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, M., Perry, R., & Green, W. H. (1984). The use of lithium in children and adolescents.Psychosomatics, 25, 95–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdella, P., & Mamelle, N. (1989). An epidemiological study of infantile autism in a French department (RhÔne): A research note.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 165–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, M. & Gillberg, C. (1985).The Biology of the Autistic Syndromes. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, M., Landgrebe, M., & Landgrebe, A. (1974). Progressive seizures with hyperuricosuria reversed by allopurinol.Archives of Neurology, 31, 238–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy. (1981). Proposal for revised clinical and electroencephalographic classification of epileptic seizures.Epilepsia, 22, 489–501.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy. (1985). Proposal for classification of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes.Epilepsia, 26, 268–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, J. (1982). Epilepsy and the electroencephalogram in early childhood psychoses. In J. K. Wing & L. Wing (Eds.),Handbook of psychiatry. (Vol. 3, pp. 198–202). London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craft, M., Ismail, I. A., Krishnamurti, D., Mathews, J., Regan, A., Seth, R., & North, P. M. (1987). Lithium in the treatment of aggression in mentally handicapped patients. A double-blind trial.British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 685–689.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deykin, E. Y., & MacMahon, G. (1979). The incidence of seizure, among children with autistic symptoms.American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 1310–1312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, G., Miranda-Linné, F., Gillberg, C., Garle, M., & Wetterberg, L. (1989). Fenfluramine treatment of twenty autistic children.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 19, 511–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R. W., & Gualtieri, C. T. (1985). Carbamazepine: A neuropsychological and psychiatric profile.Clinical Neuropharmacology, 83, 221–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fenwick, P. (1985). The EEG. In M. Rutter & L. Hersov (Eds.),Child and adolescent psychiatry: Modern approaches (pp. 382–399). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fish, B., & Ritvo, E. (1979). Psychoses of childhood. In V. Noshpitz (Ed.),Basic handbook of child psychiatry (Vol. 2, pp. 249–303). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C. (1984). Infantile autism and other childhood psychoses in a Swedish urban region. Epidemiological aspects.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 25, 35–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C. (1989). Autism. Specific problems of adolescence. In C. Gillberg (Ed.),Diagnosis and treatment of autism. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C., & Schaumann, H. (1983). Epilepsy presenting as infantile autism? Two case studies.Neuropaediatrics, 14, 206–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C., & Steffenburg, S. (1987). Outcome and prognostic factors in infantile autism and similar conditions. A population-based study of 46 cases followed through puberty.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 17, 271–285.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C., Winnergård, I., & Wahlström, J. (1984). The sex chromosomes—One key to autism? An XYY case of infantile autism.Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 5, 353–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillberg, C., Steffenburg, S., & Jakobsson, G. (1991). Is autism more common now than 10 years ago?British Journal of Psychiatry, (in press).

  • Gillberg, C., Steffenburg, S., Wahlström, J., Sjöstedt, A., & Eeg-Olofson, O. (1991). Autism associated with marker chromosome.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, (in press).

  • Gualtieri, T., Evans, R. W., & Patterson, D. R. (1987). The medical treatment of autistic people. Problems and side effects. In E. Schopler & G. Mesibov (Eds.),Neurobiological issues in autism. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, R. (1972). EEG aspects of unclassified mental retardation. In J. B. Cavanagh (Ed.),The brain in unclassified mental retardation. Study group No. 3. London: Churchill Livingstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, W. A., & Kurland, L. T. (1975). The epidemiology of epilepsy in Rochester, Minnesota, 1935–1967.Epilepsia, 16, 1–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of effective contact.Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanner, L. (1971). Follow-up study of 11 autistic children originally reported in 1943.Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 1, 119–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knobloch, H., Rider, R., Harper, P., & Pasamanick, B. (1956). Neuropsychiatric sequelae of prematurity.Journal of the American Medical Association, 161, 581–585.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolvin, I., Ounsted, C., & Roth, M. (1971). Studies in the childhood psychoses: V. Cerebral dysfunction and childhood psychoses.British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 407–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krug, D. A., Arick, J., & Almond, P. (1980). Autism Behavior Checklist for identifying severely handicapped individuals with high levels of autistic behavior.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 21–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niijima, S-I., & Wallace, S. J. (1989). Effects of puberty on seizure frequency.Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 31, 174–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotter, V. (1967). Epidemiology of autistic conditions in young children. II. Some characteristics of the parents and children.Social Psychiatry, 1, 163–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Donohue, N. V. (1985).Epilepsies of childhood (2nd ed). London, Butlerworths.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsson, I., Steffenburg, S., & Gillberg, C. (1988). Epilepsy in autism and autistic-like conditions: a population-based study.Archives of Neurology, 45, 666–668.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ornitz, E. M. (1973). Childhood autism: a review of the clinical and experimental literature.California Medicine, 118, 21–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ounsted, C., Lindsay, J., & Richards, P. (1987).Temporal lobe epilepsy. A biographical study 1948–1986 (Clinics in Developmental Medicine No. 103). Oxford: Mac Keith Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riikonen, R., & Amnell, G. (1981). Psychiatric disorders in children with earlier infantile spasms.Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 23, 747–760.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rivinius, T. M. (1982). Psychiatric effects of the anticonvulsant regimens.Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2, 165–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M. (1970). Autistic children. Infancy to adulthood.Seminars in Psychiatry, 2, 435–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M. (1978). Diagnosis and definition. In M. Rutter & E. Schopler (Eds.),Autism. A reappraisal of concepts and treatment (pp. 1–25). New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schain, R., & Yannet, H. (1960). Infantile autism: an analysis of 50 cases and a consideration of certain relevant neuropsychological concepts.Journal of Pediatrics, 57, 560–567.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirataki, S., Kuromaru, S., Hanada, M., Sugiura, Y., Yamada, T., Ushjda, S., & Shimada, S. (1982, July).Longterm follow-up study of 13 autistic children. Paper presented at the International Conference on Child Psychiatry, Dublin, Ireland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffenburg, S., & Gillberg, C. (1986). Autism and autistic like conditions in Swedish rural and urban areas: a population study.British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 81–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taft, L. T., & Cohen, H. J. (1971). Hypsarrhythmia and childhood autism: a clinical report.Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 1, 327–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanoue, Y., Oda, S., Asano, F., & Kawashima, K. (1988). Epidemiology of infantile autism in southern Ibaraki, Japan: Differences in prevalence rales in birth cohorts.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18, 155–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, D., & McKinlay, I. (1984). When not to treat epilepsy with drugs.Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 26, 822–827.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkmar, F. R., & Nelson, D. S. (1990). Seizure disorders in autism.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 127–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (1987).ICD 10. Draft of Chapter V. Mental, Behavioural and Developmental Disorders. Geneva: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wing, L. (1976).Early childhood autism (2nd ed.). Oxford: Pergamon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wing, L., & Gould, J. (1979). Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 11–29.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Göteborg, Sweden

    Christopher Gillberg

Authors
  1. Christopher Gillberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

This study has been supported by a grant from The Commission for Social Research, Sweden, No. E 88/170:2.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gillberg, C. The treatment of epilepsy in autism. J Autism Dev Disord 21, 61–77 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206998

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206998

Keywords

Search

Navigation