Acute confusional state with status petit mal as a withdrawal syndrome--and five year follow-up.

A 55 year old man developed an acute confusional state with grossly impaired short-term memory accompanied by a Status Petit Mal epilepsy pattern on EEG, one to two weeks after abruptly discontinuing a large amount of oxazepam and a smaller amount of alcohol. Both his mental status and EEG pattern normalized markedly after intravenous diazepam. On 5 year follow-up the patient was seizure-free and medication-free without any significant residual cognitive deficit.