Abstract
The usefulness of the routine standard (i.e., visually inspected) electroencephalogram (sEEG) in psychiatric practice and research is significantly hampered by the reported prevalence of EEG abnormalities in “normal” adult populations, ranging from 4 % to as high as 57.5 % (Struve 1985). This wide range likely reflects the lack of clear and rigorous standards for choosing subjects for healthy comparison groups. Blanc et al. (1964) documented that the inclusion of psychiatric patients in healthy comparison samples contributes to increased prevalence of EEG abnormalities in the examined sample. This observation was reported as early as 1939 (Davis and Davis 1939) and remains unchallenged today. In order for this technique to be reliable and useful, the boundaries of normality should be well defined.
Keywords
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Personality Disorder
- Normative Study
- General Medical Condition
- Exclusionary Criterion
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Blanc C, Lafontaine E, Laplane R (1964) Meaning and value of electroencephalography in aeronautical medicine. Aerosp Med 35:249–256
Boutros NN, Mirolo HA, Struve F (2005) Normative data for the unquantified EEG: examination of adequacy for neuropsychiatric research. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 17(1):84–90
Buchthal F, Lennox M (1953) The EEG effect of Metrazol and photic stimulation in 682 normal subjects. EEG Clin Neurophysiol 5:545–558
Chamberlain HA, Russell GJ (1952) The EEGs of the relatives of schizophrenics. J Ment Disord 8:654–659
Davis H, Davis PA (1939) Active potentials of the brain in normal persons and in normal states of cerebral activity. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 36:1214–1224
Halbreich U, Bakhai Y, Bacon KB (1989) The normalcy of selfproclaimed “normal volunteers”. Am J Psychiatry 146:1052–1055
Jabbari B, Russo MB, Russo ML (2000) Electroencephalogram of asymptomatic adult subjects. Clin Neurophysiol 111(1):102–105
Kurtzke JF (1984) Neuroepidemiology. Ann Neurol 16:265–277
Lishman WA (1987) Organic psychiatry: the psychological consequences of cerebral disorder, 2nd edn. Blackwell Scientific, Boston
McKinlay WW, Brooks DN, Bond MR (1981) The short term outcome of severe blunt head injury as reported by the relatives of the injured person. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 44:527–533
Niedermeyer E (1993) The normal EEG of the waking adult. In: Niedermeyer E, Da Silva FL (eds) Electroencephalography: basic principles, clinical applications, and related fields, 3rd edn. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, pp 131–152
Nowak SM, Marczynski TJ (1981) Trait anxiety reflected in EEG alpha response to stress. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 52:175–191
Rutherford WH, Merrett JD, McDonald JR (1977) Sequelae of concussion caused by minor head injuries. Lancet 1:1–4
Schuckit MA (1984) Subjective responses to alcohol in sons of alcoholics and control subjects. Arch Gen Psychiatry 41:879–884
Spitzer RL, Williams JBW, Gibbon M et al (1992) The structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R (SCID), I: history, rationale, and description. Arch Gen Psychiatry 49:624–629
Struve FA (1985) Clinical electroencephalography as an assessment method in psychiatric practice. In: Hall RC, Beresford TP (eds) Handbook of psychiatric diagnostic procedures, vol 2. Spectrum Publications, New York, pp 1–48
White JC, Langston JW, Pedley TA (1977) Benign epileptiform transients of sleep: clarification of the small sharp spike controversy. Neurology 27:1061–1068
Wiesel FA, Fyro B, Nyback H (1982) Relationships in healthy volunteers between secretion of monoamine metabolites in urine and family history of psychiatric morbidity. Biol Psychiatry 17:1403–1413
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Boutros, N.N. (2013). What Constitutes a Normal EEG. In: Standard EEG: A Research Roadmap for Neuropsychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04444-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04444-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04443-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04444-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)