Alcohol and Seizures Epilepsy South Central Ontario

Join the conversation today to share your experiences and connect with others on MyEpilepsyTeam. First, talk with your doctor about the risks, and read the leaflet inside your anti-epilepsy medication. If you experience an alcohol-related seizure, seek immediate medical attention. Professional help is also available for those struggling with alcohol addiction.

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About half of all people with alcohol withdrawal will have two to four seizures within the six hours that follow the first.5 Without prompt treatment, these episodes can be life-threatening. Others have seizures when they try to quit drinking after long periods. These can be life-threatening episodes, so it’s critical to know what they look like and how they’re treated. The effect of alcohol on people with epilepsy will vary from person to person, even on the same medication. People with epilepsy who drink alcohol may also be less likely to adhere to their medication schedule. If you are especially sensitive to either your AED or alcohol, it may be best to avoid drinking while taking that particular medication.

Antiepileptic drug monotherapy (OR 1.901) and physicians’ advice that a light alcohol intake is harmless (OR 4.102) were independent predictors for alcohol use within the last 12 months (Tables 2, 3). Out of the 204 patients who used alcohol, 147 (72%) were occasional or light alcohol users, 43 (21.1%) were moderate users and 14 subjects (6.9%) practiced heavier alcohol use. Nine subjects of the study population (2.9%) were AUDIT positive indicating hazardous and harmful alcohol use. The data collection on alcohol use was part of a research project systematically gathering information on nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug use in epilepsy patients within the last 12 months. The data was collected by a standardized questionnaire (see Supplementary Material). Only subjects ≥18 years who had suffered from epilepsy for at least 1 year were included.

Epileptic seizures

Drinking alcohol poses real risks to everyone’s health, and it can be especially risky if you have epilepsy. Talk with your doctor about epilepsy and alcohol for advice about what’s best for you. There is evidence that people who have uncontrolled seizures are more likely to have seizures after drinking (but people with controlled seizures could also be at risk). Any of us could potentially have a single epileptic seizure at some point in our lives. This is not the same as having epilepsy, which is a tendency to have seizures that start in the brain.

• Patients with epilepsy may feel unsure about alcohol consumption on chronic medication and therefore may be willing to follow physicians’ advices more often.
• Therefore, subjects were first queried about nicotine consumption and only later asked to give details on alcohol use.
• It is important to discuss your individual risk for drinking with your health care team.
• They also recommend that doctors check every six months to see if Epidyolex is working to control or reduce seizures and stop prescribing it if it is not.
• Furthermore, seizures seemed particularly likely if the participants did not regularly drink that much alcohol.
• In the study population, generalized genetic epilepsy was an independent predictor for the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures.
• To learn more about the risks of epilepsy and alcohol, speak to your medical team.

Health News

Even if alcohol itself doesn’t trigger your or your loved one’s seizures, it’s important to understand whether your antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are compatible with alcohol. Withdrawing (stopping drinking) from alcohol causes people’s  brains to become more excitable. This means that some people who do not actually have epilepsy may also experience seizures when they stop drinking. This is especially true for alcoholics or people who often drink heavily.

Alcohol Consumption and Antiepileptic Medications

The researchers also found that the risk of epilepsy increased as alcohol consumption increased. According to the researchers, these results are consistent with previous studies. Finally, the present study population was exclusively recruited at a tertiary care epilepsy center where usually patients with more severe variants of the disease are treated.

Can Alcohol Trigger Seizures?

Before taking your medications, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor or your pharmacist to see if it’s safe to mix with alcohol. Alcohol and some antiseizure medications can have similar side effects, and taking them together can cause potentially dangerous complications. The leaflet that comes with your medications can advise you on whether it’s safe to mix your medication with alcohol. Prolonged drinking can lead to compensatory changes in your brain, such as the down-regulation of GABA receptors and increased expression of NMDA receptors. This article explores how alcohol affects people with epilepsy and provides recommendations for how much alcohol is best to consume. Independent predictors for alcohol consumption within the last 12 months.

This can happen whether epilepsy and alcohol or not a person has epilepsy at the time of the withdrawal. However, people with epilepsy may be more likely to have seizures while going through alcohol withdrawal. Second, as patients were interviewed retrospectively on the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures, we were not able to provide data on AED drug levels after the acute manifestation of these seizures. We cannot exclude that subjects might have been more prone to seizure occurrences due to AED non-adherence. Furthermore, we cannot exclude hypoglycemic episodes caused by acute heavy alcohol consumption (26), which may have contributed to the manifestation of epileptic seizures (27).

Boca Recovery Center is here to provide the best quality care in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Alcohol works by altering GABA — a neurotransmitter that exists within the brain. When people drink, their brains don’t respond to GABA normally, and they feel sedated and calm. Studies have found that an unusually high number of alcoholics also have epilepsy. Every effort is made to ensure that all our information is correct and up to date.

• Remarkably, those who had two drinks every day had a 54% increased risk of developing cancer 1,2.
• People with epilepsy may have a higher risk of withdrawal seizures than others.
• According to the researchers, these results are consistent with previous studies.
• But some people can experience smaller episodes that don’t seem like full-body seizures.
• Talk with your doctor about epilepsy and alcohol for advice about what’s best for you.
• Initially, the inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic effect of alcohol exerts CNS depressant and anticonvulsant properties (4, 5).
• Most of these medications lower your alcohol tolerance, causing you to become intoxicated or feel the effects of alcohol more quickly or severely.

Epilepsy types and seizures were classified according to the International League Against Epilepsy (16). Heavy alcohol use can lead to seizures, especially when you stop drinking and start to enter a period of withdrawal. However, if you have a seizure disorder or epilepsy, you also face risks when drinking alcohol—both from the increased risk of seizure activity and potential interactions with seizure medications. People who drink large amounts of alcohol and suddenly stop are at a higher-than-usual risk of seizures. About 5 percent of people detoxing from alcohol abuse will have alcohol withdrawal seizures as part of the process of quitting drinking.