Seek help at a professional addiction treatment facility if you have problems controlling your drinking. Signs and symptoms of an alcohol use disorder include a preoccupation with alcohol consumption and continuing to drink despite the negative effects of alcohol. Most people with a seizure disorder (epilepsy) can drink small amounts of alcohol occasionally without experiencing an increase in seizure activity. Small amounts of alcohol do not change the blood levels of anti-seizure drugs.
Can a person die from an alcohol-related seizure?
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to life-threatening conditions, such as seizures. An alcohol-related seizure may result in your inability to control your actions, which could be dangerous. If you experience an alcohol-related seizure, you may experience falling to the floor and shaking violently for a few minutes. The clinical term for this type of seizure is called a tonic-clonic seizure. It’s best to seek medical advice before having any alcoholic beverage since each person is unique. A heathcare provider can assess whether light or moderate alcohol drinking is safe.
Alcohol can cause seizures; however, seizures from alcohol use are most likely to occur during alcohol withdrawal. Please continue reading to learn more about why alcohol seizures occur. We will also talk about why it’s important to recognize them and get prompt treatment. With alcohol use disorder (AUD), GABA responses just never return to normal. The brain is always slightly sedated, and the body is always trying to return to normal. Consuming alcohol seems to be a common trigger for seizures in people with epilepsy.
While managing your drinking can help you avoid seizures, drinking in moderation can lead to more drinking, creating a risk of developing addiction and dependence. It is also possible to experience seizures as a result of alcohol withdrawal. This can happen after someone who has misused alcohol for a long time stops consuming it. Alcohol may negatively affect sleep, and sleep disruptions may trigger seizures. For people with epilepsy, alcohol may interact with epilepsy medications and worsen their side effects or make the medications less effective in preventing seizures. Does Alcohol Help You Sleep No, Sleep Expert Explains Why Heavy drinking, particularly withdrawal from heavy drinking, may trigger seizures in those with epilepsy.
Medical Treatment
- According to a 2017 article, alcohol withdrawal seizures in those without epilepsy may occur 6–48 hours after a person consumes their last alcoholic drink.
- Not everyone who stops consuming alcohol suddenly will have episodes, but seizures can occur between six and 48 hours after a person stops drinking.
- Dehydration during a hangover may also increase the risk of seizures.
Inhibitory neurotransmitters prevent certain chemical messages from passing on.
This article looks at the connection between alcohol, seizures, and epilepsy, as well as treatment options and support. The brain functions by creating electrical impulses or messages that tell the body what to do. If you’re going to walk or talk, neurons send messages to the areas of the brain responsible for those actions. Excessive consumption of alcohol causes alcohol-related neurologic disease. When you consume alcohol, it’s absorbed into your bloodstream from the stomach and the small intestine.
Risk factors
It can also occur when an alcoholic suddenly stops drinking and experiences alcohol withdrawal. Limit yourself to no more than 3 drinks at any given time and drink slowly. But some people can experience smaller episodes that don’t seem like full-body seizures.
Alcohol withdrawal seizures typically occur 6 to 72 hours after you stop drinking and there is a rapid drop in blood alcohol concentration. Alcohol poisoning can also lead to slow or absent breathing, reducing the amount of oxygen in the brain, a condition called hypoxia. This can lead to temporary and lasting brain damage and increase the likelihood of seizures. Alcohol affects the brain in many ways over the short and long term. People who use alcohol often wonder if alcohol can cause seizures and what the risks are.
Experts believe that the kindling phenomenon occurs because of permanent changes in the brain in people with an alcohol dependence. There is no treatment that can slow or prevent the kindling effect. The only way to lower the risk of severe alcohol withdrawal seizures is to seek addiction treatment as soon as possible. In people with a long history of alcohol abuse, the severity of alcohol withdrawal symptoms increases progressively over time with each additional attempt to quit drinking.
Generalized seizures
Professional help is also available for those struggling with alcohol addiction. Sometimes, those changes are so strong that they disrupt normal electrical communication between cells. Consuming alcohol in large quantities for extended periods seems to increase seizure frequency and might increase your risk of SUDEP. In another 2020 study, researchers found that people with epilepsy were more 5 times more likely to die from alcohol-related causes than people without epilepsy. Prolonged drinking can lead to compensatory changes in your brain, such as the down-regulation of GABA receptors and increased expression of NMDA receptors.