Science / Medicine : Alcohol and Seizures

Heavy alcohol consumption apparently can cause seizures while the drinker is still imbibing and not just after he or she quits drinking, as had been thought, researchers reported last week.

“The old way of thinking is that (seizures are) the result of a sudden stoppage of drinking,” said Dr. Stephen Ng, an assistant professor of public health and pediatrics at Columbia University in New York.

But the new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a strong association between heavy current alcohol consumption and a sharply increased risk of seizures.

By comparing the drinking habits of 308 patients hospitalized after suffering their first seizures to 294 patients hospitalized for unrelated reasons, the researchers found the risk of suffering a seizure appeared to increase as the level of alcohol consumption rose above three drinks a day, Ng said.

Drinking an average of three to six drinks a day tripled the risk of suffering a seizure; drinking between six and 12 drinks a day increased the risk by eight times; drinking 12 to 18 drinks a day increased the risk almost 20 times.