Raven Press, Ltd., New York 0 International League Against Epilepsy Video Material and Epilepsy

Summary: Nine patients who had epileptic attacks while playing computer games were studied in the laboratory. Patients had an EEG recorded as well as their response to intermittent photic stimulation (IPS) at flash rates of 1-60 fps. In addition, pattern sensitivity was assessed in all patients by a gratings pattern. Only 2 patients had no previous history of convulsions, and only 2 had a normal basic EEG. All but 1 were sensitive to IPS, and all but 1 were pattern sensitive. Most patients were male, but al-though this appears to conflict with previously published literature results regarding the sex ratio in photosensitiv-ity, it was due to the male predominance of video game usage. We compared our results with those reported in the literature. Diagnosing video game epilepsy requires performing an EEG with IPS and pattern stimulation. We propose a standard method of testing. Key Words: Epi-lepsy-Video games-Pattern sensitivity-Photo-sensitivity-Television-Electroencephalography-Intermittent photic stimulation. Since 1985, there have been increasing reports of patients who have had convulsions precipitated by video material. Because both prerecorded video material displayed on domestic TV and video games have become widely available, this is not surpris-ing; indeed, we predicted in 1979 such an increase in incidence (Wilkins et al., 1979). Rushton (1981) first described an epileptic seizure induced by video games. Jeavons et al. (1981) next described the first case of attacks precipitated by a small handheld video game. Since then, 20 other patients have been reported in the literature. Some of those cases were reviewed by Maeda e t al. (1990), who also reported 7 more patients. Many investigators consider the condition to be an extension of photosensitive epilepsy (Danesh-mend and Campbell, 1982; Dahlquist et al., 1983