Abstract
A 2-year-old boy with mental retardation and right hemiplegia developed postural seizure 10 months after traumatic brain injury. His seizures were controlled with valproic acid until five years of age when he began to demonstrate daily self-induced postural seizures similar to the previous seizures. These seizures, which appeared to be accompanied by a feeling of pleasure, were triggered by sequence of motor and sensory stimuli, consisting of head banging, rapid limb movement, and sound. The first seizure in the morning sometimes evolved into serial spasms, however, subsequent seizures in the same day did not. After a seizure, the stimulating maneuver was no longer effective in provoking additional seizures for a few hours. During the course of the illness, unprovoked seizures also occurred. Both self-induced and unprovoked seizures were resistant to conventional antiepileptic drugs, but ceased dramatically after he began to masturbate at the age of 8 years old. He has remained seizure-free for more than 4 years to date.
