INCIDENCE OF THE 14 AND 6 PER SECOND POSITIVE SPIKE PATTERN IN AN ADULT CLINICAL POPULATION

Abstract

Although 14 and 6/s positive spiking in children and adolescents has received extensive investigative attention resulting in conflicting results and opinion, efforts to study this finding in adult populations are almost totally neglected. The present study attempts to contrast the incidence of this EEG finding in an adult clinical psychiatric sample with similar incidence data derived from a historical normal adult control series. From 10 yr of laboratory data, the presence or absence of positive spikes was noted in the waking and sleep EEGs of 2888 psychiatric patients aged 20 and above. These incidence figures were contrasted with similar data derived from the EEGs of 619 normal adults of similar age collected in a previously published control series. A differentially higher incidence of positive spiking in the adult clinical population as contrasted with the adult normal control population occurred with a high level of statistical significance. Methodological and technological aspects of EEG recording for the current clinical group and the historical control population are felt to be virtually identical and the possible effect of differential recording or interpretive practice confounding the present results does not seem plausible. No final solution or resolution of the positive spike controversy is presented but additional focus on this EEG signal in adults may possibly have merit.