Seizure disorders in offspring of parents with a history of seizures - a maternal-paternal difference?

If the patterns of seizure disorders in parents and offspring could be assessed accurately, some insight might be gained into the relative role of genetic and environmental factors in the development of convulsive disorders. In this study 908 children born in a Rochester, Minnesota hospital from 1922 through 1972 whose mother or father had a verified and classified diagnosis of seizure have been followed from birth for evidence of any convulsive episode or seizure disorder. The observed numbers of various types of convulsions in the offspring are compared to the expected the number based on local age-specific incidence rates. The outstanding finding was that a higher than expected number of children whose mothers had epilepsy also suffered from seizures (epilepsy or febrile convulsions), whereas no such increase was detected among the children of affected fathers.