Fifteen-minute consultation: Epilepsy in the child with intellectual disabilities—the challenges

The paediatric epilepsies are a challenging group of disorders to assess and manage appropriately. This may be because of factors relating to the epilepsy itself, to the difficulties associated with obtaining an appropriate history and investigations or to factors relating to the individual child or young person such as other health issues. This paper discusses the particular challenges of assessing and managing epilepsies in children with intellectual disabilities (with or without other comorbidities) with a view to raising awareness of potential pitfalls in this field and ultimately improving the standards of epilepsy care that are offered to this complex group of children.