Nintendo Epilepsy

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Abstract
I should like to call attention to a new variation of an uncommon form of epilepsy, namely, "Nintendo epilepsy." I recently saw a 13-year-old girl who had had a generalized tonic—clonic seizure while playing the video game. The game had been given to her as a Christmas present, and she quickly became obsessed with it. On the day in question, she and a friend played steadily for three hours, taking only a 10-minute break, until, during a particularly rapid phase of "Super Mario Brothers," she felt "strange" and proceeded to have a two-to-three-minute generalized seizure, witnessed by her parents. Electroencephalographic evaluation five days later revealed a photoconvulsive response consisting of polyspikes and slow waves during photic stimulation above frequencies of 8 Hz. At 16-Hz stimulation she felt symptoms similar to those that preceded her seizure, and thus the test was terminated. Treatment options discussed with the young lady and her parents included avoidance of video games and treatment with an anticonvulsant drug. They chose the latter, since they believed she would be unable to resist the lure of her Nintendo game.

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