1Doctoral School, Faculty of Medical and Technical Sciences, University of Medicine in Tirana, Albania
2Biomedical and Experimental Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine in Tirana, Albania
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neurology.
2014,
Vol. 2 No. 1, 4-7
DOI: 10.12691/ijcen-2-1-2
Copyright © 2014 Science and Education PublishingCite this paper: Gjon Preçi, Gentian Vyshka. Alcohol Abuse and Seizures: an Overview of Clinical Notions and Pathogenetic Theories.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neurology. 2014; 2(1):4-7. doi: 10.12691/ijcen-2-1-2.
Correspondence to: Gentian Vyshka, Biomedical and Experimental Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine in Tirana, Albania. Email:
gvyshka@yahoo.comAbstract
Alcohol abuse is a major causative factor of different neurological disorders, among which seizures and epilepsy have an important burden of disease. Through discussing different pathogenetic mechanisms, scholars have tried to define and describe the diversity of clinical pictures and occurrences that might elicit a convulsive disorder in the alcoholics. An overview of the history of the diagnostic and classificatory attempts is made in the present paper, and distinctions between acute intoxication and withdrawal syndromes are summarized. The influences of ethanol on the cellular level and on the synaptic processes are succinctly mentioned. The authors are focused predominantly in three particularities of the alcohol-related seizures, namely the so-called alcoholic epilepsy, withdrawal seizures, and subacute encephalopathy with seizures in chronic alcoholism (SESA syndrome). Several sources are quoted, and the paper contains a brief overview on the efficacy of benzodiazepines and other antiepileptic drugs in the treatment of this variety of clinical events.
Keywords