1 Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
2 Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
We gratefully acknowledge the kind remarks addressed to our paper by Drs. Kidd and Prichard, as well as their suggestions regarding the pathophysiology of breathholding spells (BHS).
We were cognizant of the differing views on the subject and indeed an effort to reconcile some of these was one of our aims. As we tried to point out, there seem to be at least two main mechanisms by which a "seizure" can be precipitated in "breathholders," namely through "ischemic anoxia" or through "anoxic anoxia."