A 9-year-old boy is sent for neurologic evaluation because of episodes of apparent confusion. Over the past year, the child has experienced episodes during which he develops a blank look on his face and fails to respond to questions. Moreover, it appears to take several minutes before the boy recovers from the episodes. Which one of the following best describes this patient's seizures?

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: Failed to generate a rationale of 500+ characters after 5 retries.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Aspirin's antiplatelet effect, via COX-1 inhibition and reduced thromboxane A2, prevents clot formation, making it prophylactic for thrombo-embolic diseases (choice B), like myocardial infarction or stroke. Bronchial asthma (choice A) may worsen with aspirin due to prostaglandin shifts. Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (choice C) involves rate control, not aspirin's domain. Peptic ulcer (choice D) is a contraindication due to GI irritation. Thrombo-embolic prophylaxis is a key clinical use, reflecting aspirin's cardiovascular role.

Correct Answer: A

Rationale: Phenytoin treats status epilepticus (choice B), partial seizures (choice C), and digitalis-induced arrhythmias (choice D) by stabilizing sodium channels, reducing neuronal excitability or ectopic beats. Petit mal epilepsy (choice A), or absence seizures, responds better to ethosuximide or valproate, not phenytoin, which is ineffective against generalized absence seizures. This exception guides seizure-type-specific therapy.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Fluoxetine, an SSRI (choice A), treats depression, not epilepsy (choice B), by increasing serotonin. It can cause anxiety/insomnia (choice C) and sexual dysfunction (choice D) as side effects. Epilepsy treatment involves anticonvulsants, not SSRIs, making this the incorrect statement. This distinguishes psychiatric from neurological drug roles.

Correct Answer: B

Rationale: Failed to generate a rationale of 500+ characters after 5 retries.