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Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy

Purpose: This study aimed to assess alcohol consumption and the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures in patients with epilepsy within the last 12 months. Methods: In an epilepsy outpatient clinic, a standardized questionnaire was used to collect data retrospectively from consecutive adult epilepsy...

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Autores principales: Hamerle, Michael, Ghaeni, Leyli, Kowski, Alexander, Weissinger, Florian, Holtkamp, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5996121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29922217
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.00401
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author Hamerle, Michael
Ghaeni, Leyli
Kowski, Alexander
Weissinger, Florian
Holtkamp, Martin
author_facet Hamerle, Michael
Ghaeni, Leyli
Kowski, Alexander
Weissinger, Florian
Holtkamp, Martin
author_sort Hamerle, Michael
collection PubMed
description Purpose: This study aimed to assess alcohol consumption and the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures in patients with epilepsy within the last 12 months. Methods: In an epilepsy outpatient clinic, a standardized questionnaire was used to collect data retrospectively from consecutive adult epilepsy patients who had been suffering from the disease for at least 1 year. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify independent predictors. Results: A total of 310 patients with epilepsy were included. Of these, 204 subjects (65.8%) consumed alcohol within the last 12 months. Independent predictors for alcohol use were antiepileptic drug monotherapy (OR 1.901) and physicians' advice that a light alcohol intake is harmless (OR 4.102). Seizure worsening related to alcohol consumption was reported by 37 of the 204 patients (18.1%) who had used alcohol. All 37 subjects had consumed large quantities of alcohol prior to the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures regardless of their usual alcohol-drinking behavior. The amount of alcohol intake prior to alcohol-related seizures was at least 7 standard drinks, which is equivalent to 1.4 L of beer or 0.7 L of wine. In 95% of cases, alcohol-related seizures occurred within 12 h after cessation of alcohol intake. Independent predictors for alcohol-related seizures were generalized genetic epilepsy (OR 5.792) and chronic heavier alcohol use (OR 8.955). Conclusions: Two-thirds of interviewed subjects had consumed alcohol within the last 12 months. This finding may be an underestimate due to patients' self-reporting and recall error. In all cases, the occurrence of alcohol related-seizures was associated with timely consumption of considerably large amounts of alcohol. Thus, a responsible alcohol intake seems to be safe for most patients with epilepsy. However, subjects with epilepsy and especially those with generalized genetic epilepsy should be made aware of an increased risk for seizures related to heavy alcohol consumption. Factors accompanying acute heavy alcohol intake such as altered sleep architecture, impaired adherence to antiepileptic medication, and metabolic disturbances may further facilitate the occurrence of seizures.
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spelling pubmed-59961212018-06-19 Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy Hamerle, Michael Ghaeni, Leyli Kowski, Alexander Weissinger, Florian Holtkamp, Martin Front Neurol Neurology Purpose: This study aimed to assess alcohol consumption and the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures in patients with epilepsy within the last 12 months. Methods: In an epilepsy outpatient clinic, a standardized questionnaire was used to collect data retrospectively from consecutive adult epilepsy patients who had been suffering from the disease for at least 1 year. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify independent predictors. Results: A total of 310 patients with epilepsy were included. Of these, 204 subjects (65.8%) consumed alcohol within the last 12 months. Independent predictors for alcohol use were antiepileptic drug monotherapy (OR 1.901) and physicians' advice that a light alcohol intake is harmless (OR 4.102). Seizure worsening related to alcohol consumption was reported by 37 of the 204 patients (18.1%) who had used alcohol. All 37 subjects had consumed large quantities of alcohol prior to the occurrence of alcohol-related seizures regardless of their usual alcohol-drinking behavior. The amount of alcohol intake prior to alcohol-related seizures was at least 7 standard drinks, which is equivalent to 1.4 L of beer or 0.7 L of wine. In 95% of cases, alcohol-related seizures occurred within 12 h after cessation of alcohol intake. Independent predictors for alcohol-related seizures were generalized genetic epilepsy (OR 5.792) and chronic heavier alcohol use (OR 8.955). Conclusions: Two-thirds of interviewed subjects had consumed alcohol within the last 12 months. This finding may be an underestimate due to patients' self-reporting and recall error. In all cases, the occurrence of alcohol related-seizures was associated with timely consumption of considerably large amounts of alcohol. Thus, a responsible alcohol intake seems to be safe for most patients with epilepsy. However, subjects with epilepsy and especially those with generalized genetic epilepsy should be made aware of an increased risk for seizures related to heavy alcohol consumption. Factors accompanying acute heavy alcohol intake such as altered sleep architecture, impaired adherence to antiepileptic medication, and metabolic disturbances may further facilitate the occurrence of seizures. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5996121/ /pubmed/29922217 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.00401 Text en Copyright © 2018 Hamerle, Ghaeni, Kowski, Weissinger and Holtkamp. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neurology
Hamerle, Michael
Ghaeni, Leyli
Kowski, Alexander
Weissinger, Florian
Holtkamp, Martin
Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title_full Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title_fullStr Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title_full_unstemmed Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title_short Alcohol Use and Alcohol-Related Seizures in Patients With Epilepsy
title_sort alcohol use and alcohol-related seizures in patients with epilepsy
topic Neurology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5996121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29922217
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.00401
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