Natural history and predictive significance of head-banging, head-rolling and breath-holding spells.

A five-year follow-up study of children who had had spells of head-banging or breath-holding at three years was carried out to see whether these symptoms have any behavioural sequelae. Of 36 children with breath-holding spells at three years, none still had them. 34 children had had spells of head-banging, and three still had the symptom at follow-up. The children with a history of head-banging were more restless and emotionally unstable at follow-up, but there was no significant difference between the index groups and their controls in other problems of behaviour or development.