Are febrile seizures provoked by a rapid rise in temperature?
A. T. Berg
Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. 06510.
Pediatricians are frequently taught that a rapid rise in temperature is
responsible for causing a febrile seizure; yet there are no clinical data
to support this hypothesis. The few experimental data are based on
hyperthermia-induced seizures in animals and are of no clear relevance to
naturally occurring fevers and accompanying seizures. Further, the
experimental findings are not consistent across studies. By contrast, there
is substantial evidence indicating that the height of temperature plays a
role in eliciting a febrile seizure. Although febrile seizures are now
recognized as benign and, in general, a disorder that should not be treated
with chronic anticonvulsant therapy, an understanding of how fevers lead to
febrile seizures may be useful for evaluating the appropriateness and
efficacy of treatments that involve intermittent therapy given at the time
of fever.
