Relation of cocaine use to seizures and epilepsy

Cocaine can provoke seizures, exacerbate a preexisting seizure disorder, or cause an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke that leads to seizures. To determine the importance of cocaine use in patients with and without epilepsy, we studied these relations and other risk factors for seizures and the mode of cocaine use.

We reviewed all charts of emergency department visits and hospitalizations of patients with discharge diagnoses simultaneously listing seizures, epilepsy, and cocaine use during a 24-month period. Data collected included patient age, sex, route of cocaine use, seizure description and duration of epilepsy, provocative factors, results of electroencephalography and computed tomography, treatment, and outcome.

Of 67,668 adult emergency department visits and 25,768 adult admissions, 1,900 were cocaine related, and 58 of these also had seizures or epilepsy. Seizure occurrences were approximately equally distributed among groups with idiopathic epilepsy, remote symptomatic localization-related epilepsy, cerebrovascular disease, and acute symptomatic seizures due to cocaine use alone. Less frequently, seizures were cryptogenic or symptomatic of metabolic abnormalities.

Cocaine use can reduce seizure threshold in patients with underlying epilepsy as a direct toxic effect or indirectly by contributing to poor compliance with antiepileptic drug treatment, poor diet, or poor sleep habits. In 12 of the 58 patients, cocaine appeared to be the only provocative factor. This may be a less significant risk factor for epilepsy than either alcohol or head trauma.