Question:easy
A child presents with short episodes of vacant stare several times a day. The vacant episode begins abruptly and the child remains unresponsive during the episode. There is no associated history of aura or postictal confusion and the child is otherwise normal. The likely diagnosis is:
A child presents with short episodes of vacant stare several times a day. The vacant episode begins abruptly and the child remains unresponsive during the episode. There is no associated history of aura or postictal confusion and the child is otherwise normal. The likely diagnosis is:
Show Hint
Brief, frequent staring with sudden onset and offset and no aura or postictal confusion equals 3 Hz spike and wave.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Grand mal seizures
- Absence seizures
- Complex partial seizures
- Day dreaming
Show Solution
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Start by profiling the spell itself. We are told the staring episodes are short, recur several times daily, switch on and off suddenly, and leave the child fully normal in between with no warning sensation and no drowsiness afterward. That symptom signature points to one specific entity.
The classic disorder is childhood absence epilepsy, in which typical absence seizures produce momentary $3$ to $10$ second lapses of awareness. The child simply freezes mid activity, then resumes as if nothing happened. The electroencephalogram fingerprint is a generalized $3\,Hz$ spike and wave discharge, and forced hyperventilation in the clinic can reproduce an attack within seconds.
Now eliminate the rest. A grand mal event is dramatic and convulsive, with a fall, tonic stiffening, clonic jerks, and a sleepy confused recovery, so it cannot explain a quiet repeated stare. A complex partial seizure tends to run longer, is commonly preceded by an aura, often shows automatic movements such as chewing or fumbling, and ends in postictal confusion, all of which are explicitly absent here. Day dreaming is breakable by a touch or a call, does not begin abruptly as an automatic event, and would not occur dozens of times a day in a stereotyped way.
Because the spells are brief, abrupt in onset and offset, very frequent, and free of aura or postictal confusion, the only entity that fits is the typical absence seizure.
\[\boxed{\text{Absence seizures}}\]
The classic disorder is childhood absence epilepsy, in which typical absence seizures produce momentary $3$ to $10$ second lapses of awareness. The child simply freezes mid activity, then resumes as if nothing happened. The electroencephalogram fingerprint is a generalized $3\,Hz$ spike and wave discharge, and forced hyperventilation in the clinic can reproduce an attack within seconds.
Now eliminate the rest. A grand mal event is dramatic and convulsive, with a fall, tonic stiffening, clonic jerks, and a sleepy confused recovery, so it cannot explain a quiet repeated stare. A complex partial seizure tends to run longer, is commonly preceded by an aura, often shows automatic movements such as chewing or fumbling, and ends in postictal confusion, all of which are explicitly absent here. Day dreaming is breakable by a touch or a call, does not begin abruptly as an automatic event, and would not occur dozens of times a day in a stereotyped way.
Because the spells are brief, abrupt in onset and offset, very frequent, and free of aura or postictal confusion, the only entity that fits is the typical absence seizure.
\[\boxed{\text{Absence seizures}}\]
Was this answer helpful?
0
