The college loves to ask the candidates questions on the theme of "why is this patient having seizures?". These tend to have some list of biochemistry results, or have a highly suggestive history which leads to a broad range of differentials. One example of such a question is Question 21 from the second paper of 2016, where a young woman presents with seizures after a few days of "unusual behaviour". Another seizure woman was admitted in Question 9 from the second paper of 2020.
Why are these women fitting? There are numerous reasons for why one might have a seizure, and of these the majority can (by extension of their magnitude) become causes of status epilepticus. Of course, the most common causes are failure to take one’s own epilepsy tablets. For the weird causes, there is a good article which lists a massive spectrum of toxins, genetic diseases, rare autoimmune conditions and what have you.
Without further ado, here is a list of possible causes.
Encephalitis
Chapter 49 (pp. 549) Disorders of consciousness by Balasubramanian Venkatesh
Chapter 50 (pp. 560) Status epilepticus by Helen I Opdam
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