Abnormal EEG in Autistic Patients without Any History of Clinical Seizures

There is insufficient information regarding whether epileptic manifestations, in the absence of seizures, contribute to the development of autism symptoms. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the most widely used tool for diagnosing epileptic brain activity. Despite the possibility of the simultaneous manifestation of epilepsy with autism, it cannot be accurately said that epileptic activity, in the absence of seizures, contributes to the emergence of autism symptoms. Therefore, it is important to investigate the prevalence of epileptic activity in non-epileptic people with autism. The purpose of this research was to examine the EEG of autistic patients without a history of clinical seizures to determine anomalies.
The studied population consisted of children between 1 and 18 years of age with autism who had referred to the neurology clinic of the hospital and the neurology office in 2022. Cases with a history of clinical seizures were excluded from the study.
A total of 50 children were studied. The results of 64% of EEG cases showed anomalies. A significant relationship was found between birth type and EEG result. As, in natural delivery, 77% of the results of EEG had anomalies (p=0.048). EEG results showed anomalies in 61% of people who did not have problems at birth and 71.4% of those who had problems at birth.
This study showed that a significant percentage of children with autism spectrum disorder and no history of clinical seizures have abnormal EEGs that should be investigated in terms of manifestations related to epilepsy.