Among 62 children with myoclonic epilepsy who had first seizures between 1 and 
10 years, without clinical or radiological evidence of brain lesion, we selected 
the 16 patients who had exhibited several types of fits and had stopped having 
seizures for over two years. First seizures occurred between 18 months and 4 
years, and they were generalized clonic, tonic-clonic or tonic. After a mean 3 
months' period, patients started also to have absence and myoclonic fits. During 
the period with various types of seizures, that lasted a mean 10 months, 
patients were ataxic and hyperkinetic, and 11 of them suffered myoclonic absence 
status for several hours or days. The EEG showed a high voltage rhythmic 
slow-wave activity with spikes, differing from the slow spike wave tracing of 
the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and there was no photosensitivity. The mean 
duration of the epilepsy was 1 year and 4 months and the last seizures were 
convulsive, occurring mainly during sleep. The clinical and EEG pattern, the 
high familial incidence are shared by the Doose syndrome, of which the present 
series seems to be a subgroup, as are other well-defined syndromes: benign and 
severe myoclonic epilepsies of infancy.