[Staring episodes in children with developmental disorders: epilepsy or behaviour?].

Behavioural episodes of staring in children are difficult to distinguish from epileptic seizures, especially in children with developmental disorders such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities. We discuss two patients with staring episodes who were using anti-epileptic drugs. In both patients, EEG with video monitoring showed that the staring was non-epileptic. The first is an 8-year-old boy, who developed severe motor problems and ataxia during treatment with valproate. His staring episodes were behavioural, caused by his intellectual disability, and the motor problems resolved after discontinuation of valproate. The second patient is a 10-year-old boy with known autism, ADHD and infantile seizures, who developed staring for which he was using valproate. Again, video-EEG monitoring during staring showed no abnormalities and in this case the staring was caused by his intellectual disability and autism. We discuss the differential diagnosis of staring episodes in children with developmental disorders and present the pitfalls of the diagnostic process.