Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Generalized non-motor (absence) seizure
Brief seizures with staring spells
HP:0002121
What it means
A generalized non-motor (absence) seizure is a type of a type of dialeptic seizure that is of electrographically generalized onset. It is a generalized seizure characterized by an interruption of activities, a blank stare, and usually the person will be unresponsive when spoken to. Any ictal motor phenomena are minor in comparison to these non-motor features.
in 2017 the ILAE Commission for Classification and Terminology recommended classifying a seizure as having focal or generalized onset only when there is a high degree of confidence (over 80%, arbitrarily chosen to parallel the usual allowable beta error) in the accuracy of this determination; see Dialeptic seizure.
Rare diseases that can present with this36
Very common80–99%
2Common30–79%
12- Epilepsy with myoclonic-atonic seizures
- Genetic epilepsy with febrile seizure plus
- Hyperinsulinism-hyperammonemia syndrome
- Intellectual disability-seizures-abnormal gait-facial dysmorphism syndrome
- Juvenile absence epilepsy
- Kleefstra syndrome due to 9q34 microdeletion
- Landau-Kleffner syndrome
- Microcephaly-intellectual disability-sensorineural hearing loss-epilepsy-abnormal muscle tone syndrome
- Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome
- Paroxysmal exertion-induced dyskinesia
- Perioral myoclonia with absences
- Severe intellectual disability-poor language-strabismus-grimacing face-long fingers syndrome
Sometimes5–29%
19- 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase deficiency, infantile/juvenile form
- Alacrimia-choreoathetosis-liver dysfunction syndrome
- Autism spectrum disorder-epilepsy-arthrogryposis syndrome
- CLCN4-related X-linked intellectual disability syndrome
- Deficiency in anterior pituitary function-variable immunodeficiency syndrome
- Early infantile developmental and epileptic encephalopathy
- Early-onset epileptic encephalopathy-cortical blindness-intellectual disability-facial dysmorphism syndrome
- Generalized epilepsy-paroxysmal dyskinesia syndrome
and 11 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Absence seizure · Absence seizures · Generalised non-motor (absence) seizure · Generalised non-motor seizure · Petit mal · Petit mal seizure · Petit mal seizures
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.