A case imitating Panayiotopoulos syndrome

Abstract

Panayiotopoulos syndrome is one of the most common childhood-specific epileptic disorders. It is characterized by autonomic symptoms; the most common being emesis. However, the presence of emetic symptoms may cause misdiagnosis, for example with some organic disorders which have similar autonomic features. On the other hand, since this syndrome has been recently well documented, the tendency for early recognition may lead to overdiagnosis. Here, we present a case which could be mistaken for Panayiotopoulos syndrome based on anamnesis, however, with the aid of ictal video-EEG monitoring, the patient was shown to present with a non-epileptic psychogenic seizure. This report is an example of careful evaluation in order to avoid over- or underdiagnosis of this benign disorder. [Published with video sequences]