Symptom overlap: Challenging diagnoses in pediatric neurology

SEATTLE — Sarah J. Spence, MD, PhD, shared tips on differentiating pediatric neurological conditions with overlapping symptoms, at the 2022 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.
Among the conditions Spence detailed were infantile spasms, which she noted are one of the most common forms of epilepsy in infancy. Children who have spasms as infants, she said, often have higher rates of intellectual disabilities later in life.
“There is something about social communication that's really specific with infantile spasms,” Spence, co-director of the Autism Spectrum Center at

SEATTLE — Sarah J. Spence, MD, PhD, shared tips on differentiating pediatric neurological conditions with overlapping symptoms, at the 2022 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.
Among the conditions Spence detailed were infantile spasms, which she noted are one of the most common forms of epilepsy in infancy. Children who have spasms as infants, she said, often have higher rates of intellectual disabilities later in life.
“There is something about social communication that’s really specific with infantile spasms,” Spence, co-director of the Autism Spectrum Center at