Outcome in Subjects with Alcohol‐Provoked Seizures

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Abstract
The outcome in 165 subjects with either an unknown (n= 93) or an alcohol-related (n= 72) seizure etiology, admitted to the emergency room of a general hospital in 1977–1978, was assessed after 10 years on the basis of subsequent hospital records and death-certificate-based mortality data. Alcohol and/or drug poisoning was the most frequent cause of death in the group with alcohol-related seizures. Sixty-four percent of the deaths in this group were directly related to alcohol abuse. The crude mortality was 45.8 (expected 8.6)/100 persons/10 years in the group with alcohol-related seizures and 15.1 (expected 6.0)/100 persons/10 years in the other group, the odds ratio between the groups being 4.8. Twenty percent of those with an unknown seizure etiology were found to show alcohol related seizures, while the seizure etiology remained unknown in 59%, and a specific etiology other than alcohol abuse was revealed in 21% during the follow-up period. We conclude that alcohol abuse is an important, though often undetected, seizure etiology carrying a poor prognosis. The difference in mortality between the groups was due more to alcoholism than to seizures. There was no difference in mortality between those with a first alcohol-related seizure and those with previous alcohol-related seizures.

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