This section answers some frequently asked questions about alcohol and seizures. When people stop consuming alcohol after chronic use, they lose the inhibitory effects of the GABA receptors, resulting in the central nervous system being overstimulated. 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. The leaflet that comes with your medications can advise you on whether it’s safe to mix your medication with alcohol. In a 2020 study, research found that the risk of SUDEP was twice as high in people with a history of alcohol dependence or substance misuse disorder.
You should never stop taking your prescribed ASM without talking to your specialist first as this could cause more seizures or more severe seizures. If you do decide to use CBD it’s important to let your epilepsy specialist know as it might affect the way your existing ASM works. The ads we show you may be personalized based on the information that you share.
Note that the occurrence of a febrile seizure in a child does not necessarily mean that the child has or will develop epilepsy. During a normal menstrual cycle, the body goes through changes in levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Status epilepticus is a medical emergency that may lead to lasting brain damage or death. Before a seizure, people may experience an aura or feel a change in sensation — such as smell, taste, sound, or vision — due to abnormal activity in the brain. Alcohol and some antiseizure medications can have similar side effects, and taking them together can cause potentially dangerous complications. Prolonged drinking can lead to compensatory changes in your brain, such as the down-regulation of GABA receptors and increased expression of NMDA receptors.
Understanding Panic Attacks and Seizures
The relationship between alcohol and seizures is complex and multifaceted. The seizure threshold is raised by alcohol drinking and declines on cessation of drinking. As a result, during withdrawal from alcohol, usually 6-48 hours after the cessation of drinking, seizures may occur.
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Not drinking alcohol is generally the safest approach to avoid alcohol-triggered seizures. However, people who are addicted to alcohol or drink significant amounts of alcohol regularly may be at increased risk of seizures when they stop drinking. If you’re dependent on alcohol, seek medical advice to avoid problems from alcohol withdrawal. 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. 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.
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Contact us today to learn how we can help you start your journey to lasting freedom from addiction. While the seizure is unlikely to be fatal, it can lead to injuries that can be very dangerous or potentially fatal. Several potential injuries can be fatal, such as falling and hitting your head, biting off your tongue during a seizure and choking on it and many other possible injuries.
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AEDs work by preventing seizure activity in the brain, but for the medication to work properly, you must have a high enough level of medication in your bloodstream. Missing a dose or taking the wrong dose of your AED can decrease these levels and trigger seizures. Excessive alcohol consumption may cause seizures, particularly alcohol withdrawal after heavy drinking. Epilepsy triggers vary from person to person but can include stress, lack of sleep, flashing lights, missed medications, and certain foods.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the relationship between alcohol and seizures, explore common symptoms, discuss the underlying causes, and provide tips for staying safe. By understanding how alcohol and seizures interact, you can take proactive steps to reduce your risk and protect your well-being. People who drink a lot of alcohol for an extended period can develop permanent changes in their brains, and removing alcohol can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Seizures, and a severe condition called delirium tremens, are possible complications of alcohol withdrawal. There are two important considerations when someone with epilepsy is considering using alcohol. First, those with epilepsy may be more likely to have a seizure while withdrawing from alcohol or using alcohol.
Dangers of Mixing Epilepsy Medications with Alcohol
- In patients with generalized genetic epilepsy, seizures commonly manifest within 30 min after awakening.
- However, in some cases, people who experience severe anxiety or panic attacks may develop psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES).
- Epilepsy triggers vary from person to person but can include stress, lack of sleep, flashing lights, missed medications, and certain foods.
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- Many people worry that their intense anxiety could trigger a seizure, leaving them feeling even more scared and helpless.
- Drinking too much alcohol at once can increase your risk of seizures, especially if you binge drink or have a history of seizure problems.
Seizure medicine requires a prescription, and doctors do not typically prescribe them to people who think they may have seizures from drinking. Drinking too much alcohol at once can increase your risk of seizures, especially if you binge drink or have a history of seizure problems. Alcohol use changes brain signals and can cause dehydration and changes in the normal concentrations of chemicals in your bloodstream. Seizure medicine can also interact with alcohol, making its effect even greater. All these factors combine to increase your risk of seizures while using can alcohol trigger epileptic seizures alcohol.
This indicates a potential selection bias and our results may not be generalized to all epilepsy patients without restrictions. As one MyEpilepsyTeam member recommended, “You can look up your medications on the internet and find out if they have any adverse reactions to alcohol.” Another noted, “It would be wise to speak to your pharmacist about it. They know more about the medications than the doctors do.” Ultimately, it’s important that you understand the side effects of your medications, as well as how they interact with alcohol, if you choose to drink. The answer to whether alcohol can trigger seizures is more complex than you might think. While seizures can manifest in many ways, tonic-clonic seizures are the most common and can last up to two minutes. They will fall if standing upright, and every muscle in their body will be completely tense.
Only a minority of patients documented details on alcohol-related seizures in seizure diaries. Our retrospective data collection on alcohol-related seizures also depended on subjects’ recall capability, and may reflect bias due to recall errors. We addressed this by focusing only on alcohol-related seizures that had occurred within the last 12 months. Details were only recorded on those alcohol-related seizures that subjects were able to remember the best. As a consequence however, alcohol-related seizures may have also occurred after smaller amounts of alcohol intake or in other circumstances that were not taken into account in the present study. In one small study from 2018, people with epilepsy who reported seizures after drinking had consumed seven or more standard-sized drinks before their seizures occurred.
Nearly all of the seizures occurred within 12 hours after they stopped drinking. Furthermore, seizures seemed particularly likely if the participants did not regularly drink that much alcohol. Abnormally low blood sugar levels can lead to seizures, and this drop normally occurs at the same time as a hangover, causing people to connect the hangover with the seizure. Caffeine and nicotine are commonly used stimulants that can lower your seizure threshold. When taken in large amounts, caffeine and other stimulants can increase the excitability in the brain. Other recreational and illicit drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, and MDMA (ecstasy or molly) can induce seizures in people with epilepsy.
Seizures from drinking are most likely to occur as the effects of alcohol wear off. Alcohol withdrawal seizures are more common in those who have been binge drinking or are trying to stop using alcohol after prolonged use. Those who overdose on alcohol may also experience alcohol poisoning seizures as the toxins from alcohol build up in their bloodstream.
Thus, the absence of alcohol has allowed the neurotransmitters to be out of balance. A report from 2021 also found that alcohol-related deaths were five times more likely in people with epilepsy than those without the condition. Delirium tremens is the most severe form of alcohol withdrawal and affects about 2% of people with alcohol use disorder. In this article, learn what alcohol does to the brain, how it can lead to seizures, and what you need to know about alcohol use if you already have a seizure disorder. Alcohol consumption usually represents a taboo in the doctor-patient relationship and questions on the smoking status are answered more easily.