Abstract

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether the presence of eye closure in a patient that appears to be fitting is useful in determining whether the fit is epileptic or non-epileptic 497 papers were found using the reported searches, of which nine presented the best available evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of eight of these papers are tabulated. It is concluded that if a patient has their eyes shut during a fit then it is likely that the fit is psychogenic. However, some epileptic patients do have their eyes shut during seizures and many patients with psychogenic seizures have their eyes open so eye closure alone cannot be used for final diagnosis.