Sir, We report a patient with ''absence status epilepsy" and discuss the features specific to this syndrome. A 49-year-old presented with an acute confusional state, which lasted for more than 24 hours. There was no family history of seizures. From the age of 16, he started getting generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) at yearly intervals for 5 years, which subsequently became very infrequent. He was on 500 mg of sodium valproate. From the age of 20, he used to have episodes of confusion and unresponsiveness lasting for hours precipitated by sleep deprivation and emotional disturbances. He used to recover after a nap. These episodes became more frequent and prolonged, interfering with official work and necessitating multiple hospital admissions. There was no history of myoclonic jerks. At admission, he was confused. An urgent video-electroencephalography (EEG) was performed, which showed continuous runs of generalized spike-wave (SW) discharges at 3 Hz [Figure 1a].
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