Fluorescent Lighting and Epilepsy
- 1 December 1979
- Vol. 20 (6) , 725-727
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1979.tb04856.x
Abstract
Fluorescent tubes flash at twice the mains frequency (100 Hz in Europe). With aging, 50-Hz brightness modulation appears. A survey of tubes used in our institute showed that 42% exhibited brightness modulation up to a depth of 20% or occasionally 30%. The effects of fluorescent lighting on the EEGs of 20 patients with photosensitive epilepsy have been studied. In no patient did the 100-Hz flicker of normally functioning tubes elicit paroxysmal activity. In 8 of 13 subjects sensitive to 50 Hz, IPS paroxysmal discharges were evoked by 50-Hz brightness modulation, but only at modulation depths of 50% or more. It is concluded that as paroxysmal activity could not be elicited by normally functioning tubes nor at those depths of modulation occurring in practice, fluorescent lighting is unlikely to present a hazard to photosensitive patients.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Television epilepsy — The role of patternElectroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1979
- Television epilepsy and pattern sensitivity.BMJ, 1977