Epilepsy research
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The concept of a preictal state is based on the belief that it may be possible to predict seizures before they occur. The preictal state is viewed as a time period when a seizure is practically inevitable, or at least a period of greatly increased seizure probability. Changes in seizure frequency may provide insight into how seizure probability increases after brain injury. ⋯ Also, spontaneous recurrent seizures frequently occurred in clusters, suggesting that the intra-cluster seizure intervals are periods of high seizure probability. Thus, seizure probability progressively increases as a function of time after an epileptogenic brain injury, and is particularly high between seizures within a cluster, as compared to the time between clusters. These data suggest that the detectors of the preictal state need to be accurate (and tested) over a very wide range of seizure probabilities, and that studies on the physiological events that occur during seizure clusters may provide insight on the properties of the preictal state.