Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis in a Norwegian population of patients

Forty-three patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is presented. The female to male ratio was 2.9:1. The patients answered a standardized questionnaire pertaining to social situation, medical history, onset of epilepsy, types and frequency of seizures, treatment, experienced control over seizures and consequences of having epilepsy. Myoclonic jerks, which are the hallmark of the condition, are often forgotten by the patients or not considered as epileptic seizures. This could be one reason why JME still seems underdiagnosed. JME may comprise absence, myoclonic and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS), proposed to occur in age-related sequence. We found that absence seizures may start after onset of other seizures. Our results confirm the need for medication since, during the last year, only 7% were seizure free without medication. Of patients on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), 79.5% had no GTCS and 41% were seizure free during the last year, which confirms a relatively good response to appropriate treatment. Although most patients used AED daily and many still had one or more types of epileptic seizure, the epilepsy in general had very little impact on their lives.