Association between family history of alcohol use disorder and catamenial epilepsy

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) might be a risk factor and possible clinical biomarker for catamenial epilepsy. The retrospective case-control data came from 119 women, aged 13-48 years, with intractable seizures. We report the relative risk for positive family history of AUD among women with catamenial epilepsy (Group 1) relative to women with noncatamenial epilepsy (Group 2). The risk ratio (RR) for positive AUD history for Group 1 (n = 59) relative to Group 2 (n = 60) was 3.46 (95% confidence interval = 1.36-8.76, p = .009). The RRs were significant for women who had the (C1) perimenstrual (p = .009) and (C3) entire luteal phase (p = .003) patterns but not the (C2) preovulatory pattern. AUD history had a high specificity of 91.7% (55/60) but relatively low sensitivity of 28.8% (17/59) for the prediction of catamenial epilepsy. The positive predictive value was 77.3% (17/22), whereas the negative predictive value was 56.7% (55/97). AUD history is a highly specific biomarker for catamenial epilepsy but has relatively low sensitivity for its detection. Further investigation may identify additional biomarkers that are more efficient than seizure-menses calendars.