Syndromes

What is a syndrome?

A syndrome is a group of signs and symptoms that, added together, suggest a particular medical condition. In epilepsy, examples of these signs and symptoms would be things like the age at which seizures begin, the type of seizures, whether the child is male or female and whether they experience difficulties with learning.

If a child is diagnosed with a particular syndrome, it allows doctors to provide more information about what is most likely to happen to them in future years, not only from the point of view of the epilepsy but also in relation to other features such as learning skills.

In the UK there are support groups for parents of children with some types of syndrome. Details of the support groups can be obtained from the followin

Contact A Family
209-211 City Road
London EC1V 1JN
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7608 8714
Freephone helpline: +44 (0)808 808 3555
Email: info@cafamily.org.uk
Minicom line: +44 (0)808 808 3556
www.cafamily.org.uk

Epilepsy Action is indebted to Dr Richard Appleton, a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist who specialises in children’s epilepsy, and to Dr Rachel Kneen, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist and Dr Stewart Macleod, Specialist Registrar in paediatric neurology, at Alder Hey at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, who have kindly prepared the information on this page. 

Because this page is written by an epilepsy healthcare professional and not by Epilepsy Action, it falls outside the requirements of the Information Standard. This is why the Information Standard logo is not shown on this page.