With untrained EEGers, these patterns may lead to misdiagnosis, as they are often over-interpreted by readers lacking proper training ( Benbadis and Tatum, 2003). These benign (normal) variants can resemble both epileptiform waveforms and rhythmic patterns ( Tatum et al., 2006). This is crucial as the same patterns can be seen in healthy individuals too. When reading EEG, it is important to distinguish normal from abnormal patterns, and to avoid over-reading of normal patterns that share features resembling the abnormal patterns. In addition to the considerable economic burden, over-diagnosing epilepsy has detrimental consequence for the patients, such as exposure to the unnecessary side effects of a futile treatment and limiting the patients’ mobility and career choices ( Juarez-Garcia et al., 2006, Nowack, 1997). This is also important for clinical EEG reading, as over-diagnosing patients can do great harm. “Primum non nocere – First, do no harm” is part of the original Hippocratic oath.
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