Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy

This is the first book to deal comprehensively with this fascinating idiopathic epileptic syndrome. Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, thought to account for up to 11% of all epilepsies, is characterized by bilateral myoclonic jerks of the limbs, usually without loss of consciousness, which occur in otherwise healthy individuals, generally shortly after awakening. JME displays a clear genetic basis and episodes can be precipitated by lack of sleep, irregular lifestyle or by certain manual activities.The book is divided into three sections. The first and largest section addresses clinical aspects of JME including epidemiology, definitions, and diagnosis, electrophysiology, imaging and radiology, psychological and psychiatric aspects, and treatment. Section 2 examines clinical genetics and teratology, and Section 3 looks in detail at the molecular genetics of JME, the area in which research is most active.This volume brings together the leading international names in a particularly intriguing area of epilepsy,research. The contributors include famous authors from UK, USA, Japan, Germany, Italy and France. The concluding chapter is by Dieter Janz who was the first author to describe JME in 1957.