Three mahjong players went into epileptic fits in the first documented cases of so-called 'mahjong epilepsy' in Hong Kong - but it is not because of the frenetic movement of the tiles, a medical journal has reported.
The only cure for those susceptible might be to avoid the game, Queen Mary Hospital doctors wrote in the latest issue of the Hong Kong Medical Journal.
Only 20 other cases of mahjong epilepsy have been reported in medical literature - all of them Taiwanese.
The doctors, led by Windsor Mak Wai-wo, say the stressful game and sleep deprivation might lower the seizure threshold among susceptible players.
'Playing mahjong is associated with considerable stress, especially when monetary bets are involved,' they say in the article.
But they believe mahjong epilepsy is a 'genuine phenomenon and a unique syndrome' because most of the patients had no seizures other than those associated with mahjong.