A focal behaviour arrest seizure is characterized by a decrease in amplitude and/or rate or arrest of ongoing motor activity during the seizure. Because brief behaviour arrest is common and difficult to identify at the start of many seizures, the arrest must be persistent and dominant through the entire seizure.

NOTE If the patient is able to identify that fear is the primary onset feature of the seizure, and results in immobility, the seizure is a focal emotional seizure with fear, and the immobility is then considered a descriptive feature, due to the fear.

NOTE If the focal seizure is not characterized by this feature at the very outset of the seizure, it is not used to classify the seizure, it is instead used as a seizure descriptor, after the seizure is classified according to its onset feature.