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.