[Comorbidity in children with epilepsy. II: Aetiology].

A search of the literature of studies on comorbidity in children with idiopathic and cryptogenic epilepsy and its aetiology revealed few prospective longitudinal studies of evidence class II. There were too few studies on aetiology to determine the causes with certainty, but psychosocial factors seem vital, thus emphasizing the importance of information and support to the child and its family, including siblings. The cognitive and behavioural effect of antiepileptic medicine (other than phenobarbital) seems modest when AED is used monotherapeutically. Likewise, there only seems to be a modest connection between comorbidity and epilepsy-related variables such as age of onset, seizure types, EEG-changes and control of seizures.