Originally published November 10 2005
British scientist gives parents tips to protect children against light-induced seizures
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A report by Graham Harding of the Clinical Neurophysiology Unit in England informs parents on how to reduce the risk of their children experiencing seizures while playing video games or watching TV.
The consensus recommendations, which are published in full on the Epilepsy Foundation website, cover factors such as light intensity, flicker, contrast, duration and pattern, and the technical parameters within these factors that are most likely to provoke seizures in susceptible individuals.
Accompanying the report in Epilepsia is an article on the literature and data review conducted for the working group as part of its analysis and recommendations development.
No one knows how many people have had seizures while watching television, surfing the Internet, or playing videogames.
But some epileptologists (doctors who treat seizures) have noticed an increase in the number of young people coming to them following these incidents.
The Epilepsy Foundation, which has been watching this trend, believes that seizures from visual stimulation are a significant national health problem.
Physicians on the Epilepsy Foundation's Task Force on Photosensitivity advise that children and young adults 7 to 19 years of age are especially susceptible to visually induced seizures.
This five-fold increased risk to youth was dramatically highlighted in December 1997 when nearly 700 children were hospitalized in Japan for symptoms that developed while watching a televised Pokemon episode.
Giuseppe Erba, MD, from the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who led development of the recommendations, said "Children with undetected epilepsy may have a first recognized seizure while playing or soon after playing a videogame.
This doesn't mean that the videogame caused the epilepsy, but it reveals the vulnerability of individuals who carry the photosensitive trait when they are exposed to visual stimuli capable of triggering the abnormal response.
In a separate report also released today, the Epilepsy Foundation has issued recommendation for industry concerning technical characteristics of light and patterns that might pose a risk to people who are photosensitive.
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