EPILEPSY AND NARCOLEPSY ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERINSULINISM

Abstract

Lennox and Cobb,¹in the introductory paragraph of their monograph on epilepsy, state that "most authors think of epilepsy as a symptom rather than a disease entity." Therefore, the most important problem in the study of any case of epilepsy is to find the organic disease, or the functional disturbance, of which the recurring attacks of convulsions and unconsciousness (epileptiform seizures) may be manifestations. In recent years, many cases of grand mal and petit mal, which were formerly diagnosed as epilepsy, have been recognized as symptomatic of organic diseases of the brain, such as trauma, neoplasms, encephalitis, meningitis, tuberculosis, syphilis, multiple sclerosis and other cerebral lesions. It is believed by some that epilepsy may be associated with lesions, or functional disturbances, of other organs besides the brain; so that medical dictionaries contain such terms as "cardiac epilepsy," "gastric epilepsy" and "menstrual epilepsy."²Epileptic seizures, likewise, have been thought