[Initial epileptic manifestations in adolescents].

Eighty-eight epileptic patients with a history of first attacks at the age of 12-17 years have been studied. The control group has been composed of 176 patients in whom the disease first manifested at other age periods. The disease in adolescents more often begins with generalized paroxysmal attacks without aura or other focal components. The etiology of epilepsy in adolescents versus young children is less associated with perinatal pathology. The overwhelming majority of adolescents show electroencephalographic changes already at the onset of the disease while the number of patients with marked organic cerebral alterations demonstrated by PEG or CT is relatively small. An insufficiently critical attitude of adolescents to the disease necessitates the inclusion of psychotherapeutic measures into multiple modality treatment.