Recognition of child abuse in the epilepsy monitoring unit

Despite being underreported and underrecognized, child maltreatment is one of the most common causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. The epilepsy monitoring unit is especially amenable for identification of those at risk because it involves direct observation of behavior for days at a time. Although nonepileptic events may suggest psychosocial etiologies, we describe a case where the diagnosis of child maltreatment was made when no habitual events were recorded in the epilepsy monitoring unit.