Death from seizures induced by chronic alcohol abuse--does it exist?

In a forensic setting, deaths due to seizures, either epileptic or other, present a well-known problem. Cause of death is rarely established on the basis of physical evidence, but on circumstantial evidence such as tongue biting or discharge of urine or faeces. Seizures have several different aetiologies, but in police reports a person known to have seizures is most likely to be reported as suffering from epilepsy. It is a well-known fact that alcoholics have seizures either due to "alcohol-induced epilepsy" or due to withdrawal from drinking. It also seems to be generally accepted that alcoholics may die from these seizures. A literature study was performed of deaths due to alcohol-induced seizures, either during withdrawal or as late-onset seizures where the aetiology was established as long time alcohol abuse and a necropsy had shown no other possible cause of death than a seizure.

It was not possible to find any well-documented cases. It is, however, difficult to compare cases in the literature, as there is no generally accepted classification or nomenclature of seizures related to alcohol abuse.