A teacher brings in a child who says she fell down after hitting a table. On probing further, you decide that it was most probably an absence seizure. What led you to this diagnosis?

The key is B. The child suddenly went blank and there was up-rolling of eyes. [An absence seizure is

a generalized onset seizure, which means it begins in both sides of the brain at the same time. An older

term is petit mal seizures. Absence seizures usually affect only a person's awareness of what is going on

at that time, with immediate recovery].