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Epilepsy, absence

epileptic seizures that consist of a sudden cessation of ongoing conscious activity without convulsive muscular activity or loss of postural control. These seizures may be so brief as to be inapparent, lasting seconds and occasionally several minutes. Absence seizures usually begin in otherwise neurologically normal children and rarely appear for the first time in adults. The seizures may occur hundreds of times per day and go on for weeks or months before it is recognised that a child is having seizures.