PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to analyze and quantify the association between alcohol consumption and epilepsy as an independent disease, in part operationalized by the occurrence of unprovoked seizures, as well as to examine causality. METHODS: Systematic review, meta-analysis. RESULTS: A strong and consistent association between alcohol consumption and epilepsy/unprovoked seizures was found with an overall relative risk (RR) of 2.19 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.83-2.63]. There was a dose-response relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed daily and the probability of the onset of epilepsy. Individuals consuming an average of four, six, and eight drinks daily had RRs of 1.81 (95% CI 1.59-2.07), 2.44 (95% CI 2.00-2.97), and 3.27 (95% CI 2.52-4.26), respectively, compared to nondrinkers. Several pathogenic mechanisms for the development of epilepsy in alcohol users were identified. Most of the relevant studies found that a high percentage of alcohol users with epilepsy would qualify for the criteria of alcohol dependence. Data were inconclusive regarding a threshold for the effect of alcohol, but most studies suggest that the effect may only hold for heavy drinking (four and more drinks daily). DISCUSSION: The relationship between alcohol consumption and epilepsy and unprovoked seizures was quantified and several pathogenic mechanisms were suggested, although none of them has been proven to be the unique causative pathway for epilepsy. Certain limitations underlying this study require further research to clarify the outstanding statistical issues and pathogenesis of epilepsy in heavy drinkers.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to analyze and quantify the association between alcohol consumption and epilepsy as an independent disease, in part operationalized by the occurrence of unprovoked seizures, as well as to examine causality. METHODS: Systematic review, meta-analysis. RESULTS: A strong and consistent association between alcohol consumption and epilepsy/unprovoked seizures was found with an overall relative risk (RR) of 2.19 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.83-2.63]. There was a dose-response relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed daily and the probability of the onset of epilepsy. Individuals consuming an average of four, six, and eight drinks daily had RRs of 1.81 (95% CI 1.59-2.07), 2.44 (95% CI 2.00-2.97), and 3.27 (95% CI 2.52-4.26), respectively, compared to nondrinkers. Several pathogenic mechanisms for the development of epilepsy in alcohol users were identified. Most of the relevant studies found that a high percentage of alcohol users with epilepsy would qualify for the criteria of alcohol dependence. Data were inconclusive regarding a threshold for the effect of alcohol, but most studies suggest that the effect may only hold for heavy drinking (four and more drinks daily). DISCUSSION: The relationship between alcohol consumption and epilepsy and unprovoked seizures was quantified and several pathogenic mechanisms were suggested, although none of them has been proven to be the unique causative pathway for epilepsy. Certain limitations underlying this study require further research to clarify the outstanding statistical issues and pathogenesis of epilepsy in heavy drinkers.
Authors: Jürgen Rehm; Dolly Baliunas; Guilherme L G Borges; Kathryn Graham; Hyacinth Irving; Tara Kehoe; Charles D Parry; Jayadeep Patra; Svetlana Popova; Vladimir Poznyak; Michael Roerecke; Robin Room; Andriy V Samokhvalov; Benjamin Taylor Journal: Addiction Date: 2010-03-15 Impact factor: 6.526
Authors: Stephen S Lim; Theo Vos; Abraham D Flaxman; Goodarz Danaei; Kenji Shibuya; Heather Adair-Rohani; Markus Amann; H Ross Anderson; Kathryn G Andrews; Martin Aryee; Charles Atkinson; Loraine J Bacchus; Adil N Bahalim; Kalpana Balakrishnan; John Balmes; Suzanne Barker-Collo; Amanda Baxter; Michelle L Bell; Jed D Blore; Fiona Blyth; Carissa Bonner; Guilherme Borges; Rupert Bourne; Michel Boussinesq; Michael Brauer; Peter Brooks; Nigel G Bruce; Bert Brunekreef; Claire Bryan-Hancock; Chiara Bucello; Rachelle Buchbinder; Fiona Bull; Richard T Burnett; Tim E Byers; Bianca Calabria; Jonathan Carapetis; Emily Carnahan; Zoe Chafe; Fiona Charlson; Honglei Chen; Jian Shen Chen; Andrew Tai-Ann Cheng; Jennifer Christine Child; Aaron Cohen; K Ellicott Colson; Benjamin C Cowie; Sarah Darby; Susan Darling; Adrian Davis; Louisa Degenhardt; Frank Dentener; Don C Des Jarlais; Karen Devries; Mukesh Dherani; Eric L Ding; E Ray Dorsey; Tim Driscoll; Karen Edmond; Suad Eltahir Ali; Rebecca E Engell; Patricia J Erwin; Saman Fahimi; Gail Falder; Farshad Farzadfar; Alize Ferrari; Mariel M Finucane; Seth Flaxman; Francis Gerry R Fowkes; Greg Freedman; Michael K Freeman; Emmanuela Gakidou; Santu Ghosh; Edward Giovannucci; Gerhard Gmel; Kathryn Graham; Rebecca Grainger; Bridget Grant; David Gunnell; Hialy R Gutierrez; Wayne Hall; Hans W Hoek; Anthony Hogan; H Dean Hosgood; Damian Hoy; Howard Hu; Bryan J Hubbell; Sally J Hutchings; Sydney E Ibeanusi; Gemma L Jacklyn; Rashmi Jasrasaria; Jost B Jonas; Haidong Kan; John A Kanis; Nicholas Kassebaum; Norito Kawakami; Young-Ho Khang; Shahab Khatibzadeh; Jon-Paul Khoo; Cindy Kok; Francine Laden; Ratilal Lalloo; Qing Lan; Tim Lathlean; Janet L Leasher; James Leigh; Yang Li; John Kent Lin; Steven E Lipshultz; Stephanie London; Rafael Lozano; Yuan Lu; Joelle Mak; Reza Malekzadeh; Leslie Mallinger; Wagner Marcenes; Lyn March; Robin Marks; Randall Martin; Paul McGale; John McGrath; Sumi Mehta; George A Mensah; Tony R Merriman; Renata Micha; Catherine Michaud; Vinod Mishra; Khayriyyah Mohd Hanafiah; Ali A Mokdad; Lidia Morawska; Dariush Mozaffarian; Tasha Murphy; Mohsen Naghavi; Bruce Neal; Paul K Nelson; Joan Miquel Nolla; Rosana Norman; Casey Olives; Saad B Omer; Jessica Orchard; Richard Osborne; Bart Ostro; Andrew Page; Kiran D Pandey; Charles D H Parry; Erin Passmore; Jayadeep Patra; Neil Pearce; Pamela M Pelizzari; Max Petzold; Michael R Phillips; Dan Pope; C Arden Pope; John Powles; Mayuree Rao; Homie Razavi; Eva A Rehfuess; Jürgen T Rehm; Beate Ritz; Frederick P Rivara; Thomas Roberts; Carolyn Robinson; Jose A Rodriguez-Portales; Isabelle Romieu; Robin Room; Lisa C Rosenfeld; Ananya Roy; Lesley Rushton; Joshua A Salomon; Uchechukwu Sampson; Lidia Sanchez-Riera; Ella Sanman; Amir Sapkota; Soraya Seedat; Peilin Shi; Kevin Shield; Rupak Shivakoti; Gitanjali M Singh; David A Sleet; Emma Smith; Kirk R Smith; Nicolas J C Stapelberg; Kyle Steenland; Heidi Stöckl; Lars Jacob Stovner; Kurt Straif; Lahn Straney; George D Thurston; Jimmy H Tran; Rita Van Dingenen; Aaron van Donkelaar; J Lennert Veerman; Lakshmi Vijayakumar; Robert Weintraub; Myrna M Weissman; Richard A White; Harvey Whiteford; Steven T Wiersma; James D Wilkinson; Hywel C Williams; Warwick Williams; Nicholas Wilson; Anthony D Woolf; Paul Yip; Jan M Zielinski; Alan D Lopez; Christopher J L Murray; Majid Ezzati; Mohammad A AlMazroa; Ziad A Memish Journal: Lancet Date: 2012-12-15 Impact factor: 79.321
Authors: Marlene Bloechliger; Alessandro Ceschi; Stephan Rüegg; Susan Sara Jick; Christoph Rudolf Meier; Michael Bodmer Journal: Eur J Epidemiol Date: 2016-05-04 Impact factor: 8.082