Absence Seizure

Absence seizures involve brief, sudden lapses of consciousness. They're more common in children than adults. Someone having an absence seizure may look like he or she is staring into space for a few seconds. This type of seizure usually doesn't lead to physical injury.

Typically, this type of seizure lasts between 10 and 30 seconds. The person, most often a child aged 5 to 15, abruptly stops whatever he's doing (talking, walking) and appears to "stare into space." Absence seizures rarely cause a true convulsion in which the person falls down or collapses. Despite briefly losing consciousness, the person recovers fully with no lingering confusion or other ill effects. These "spells" may occur infrequently or several times per hour.

The incidence of a first unprovoked seizure was 61 per 100,000 compared to the incidence of epilepsy of 44 per 100,00012. Overall, while difficult to confirm, the incidence of first single unprovoked seizures is likely to lie somewhere in the range of 50 and 70 per 100,000.While many factors may be contributing to this disparity, it has been shown that people from a socio-economically deprived background are at higher risk of developing epilepsy.