Etiology and Weekly Occurrence of Alcohol-related Seizures (original) (raw)

Objectives: 1) To determine the prevalence of identifiable causes of alcohol-related seizures other than alcohol withdrawal. 2) To test the hypothesis that patients with alcohol-related seizures present with greater frequency following Sundays when alcohol is not commercially available. Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of 140 consecutive patients presenting with alcoholrelated seizures during a six-month period. Identifiable causes of seizures other than alcohol withdrawal and the day of the week of presentation were documented. Results: One hundred forty individual patients were eligible for study. Identifiable causes of seizures other than alcohol withdrawal were found in 53.6% of patients, and they were distributed as follows: 1) current or past history of significant head trauma 25.7%, 2) idiopathic seizure disorder 15.7%, 3) cerebrovascular accident 5.7%, 4) nontraumatic intracranial lesion 3.6%, and 5) toxic/metabolic abnormalities 2.9%. Alcohol is not available for