[Electrophysiological aspects of alcoholic epilepsy (author's transl)]

Two types of neurophysiological investigations (standard EEG and polygraphic recording of sleep) were performed on a group of subjects suffering from 'alcoholic epilepsy'. Results were then compared with data from normal subjects and chronic alcoholics without epilepsy. Epileptic patterns on standard EEG are rare. They are increased by sleep. Both the alteration of basal activity in wakefulness and the organization of sleep point to a dysfunction of the CNS. The role of chronic alcoholic intoxication in epileptic seizures could be explained through the slowly decreasing biochemical cerebral action after withdrawal, rather than by a local or diffuse effect in the CNS level.