Reading Epilepsy in Senegalese Young Woman: A Case Report

Reading epilepsy is an epileptic syndrome in which silent and/or aloud reading is the main triggering factor. It is rare in clinical practice. We report here a recent case of reading epilepsy in a Senegalese young woman. It is a young woman of 25 years old, student, third of a sibling of five children, without a known pathological history, having an up-to-date vaccination status and a good psychomotor development. She had attended a French-Arabic bilingual school at the age of five, which would have gone well until the age of 14, disrupted by the first A brief tremor of the mouth during a reading in class accompanied by a feeling of generalized embarrassment difficult to describe against a backdrop of physical asthenia and apathy. This crisis would have taken place in less than two minutes and would have yielded spontaneously to stop reading. At the age of 19 years during a prolonged reading a crisis similar to the previous ones had turned, this time, into a generalized tonic crisis. This is how she was brought to the neurological clinic for consultation in a picture of discomfort. From the cost a first the electroencephalogram was performed and showed maximum diffuse theta activities on temporal projections on a normal background rate. At the test of reading, appeared waves predominantly temporo-occipital left. The activation tests (hyperpnea and intermittent light stimulation) had no effect. After three (3) weeks of treatment by Phenobarbital, we observed a good clinical-electrical improvement. Reading epilepsy is very rare in our practice; its early diagnosis allows treatment and avoid the impact on the students’ academic future.