Caffeine & It's Effects On Epilepsy (Seizures)

fiendishfreddie

Eh up...

I was diagnosed with Epilepsy when i was about 16, i'm now 24.
About 3 months ago i met a bloke who advised me that drinkinking Caffeine affects Epilepsy/Anti Epileptic Drugs.

I decided at this point i'd give up caffeine completely. No coffee/tea/fizzy drinks the works. Just to see if made any difference.
I'd had seizures every couple of months or so for the last 2-3 years with the past 3 months being no exception.

Today I had a cup of tea and a can of coke because to be honest i wondered to myself; does it actually make any difference?

For almost 3 years in college i was almost completely seizure free. During this time i was drinking copious amounts of the stuff.

The only times i've ever taken a seizure is the morning after a night on the tear (which makes it blantantly obvious it's late nights, partying and lack of sleep that trigger my fits)

Basically what i'm wondering is does anyone know anything about the affects of caffeine on epilepsy? I'm talking proven scientific/medical/neurological fact!

Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated because i'm partial to an owl can of coke/cup of tea/latte...

ps: please dont bother pointing out drinking and partying as the obvious factor, i'm working on that one plus ive heard it all before and i'm big and ugly enough to know the situation, all i want are peoples opinions on caffeine and Epilepsy...

Cheers for any help or advice,

JoeyJJ

Alright,

Well I cannot offer any concrete evidence.

My seizures have only come as an effect of overdoing it either not enough sleep or too much work combined with partying. Seizure free for 3 years my advice wouldn't be give up caffeine, but rest well before you decide to party hard.

There are loads of different people who are stimulated by different things, I suffer grande mal seizures which are very violent and although they aren't frequent they take a good while to get over and I like to be able to drive so I make sure I get enough sleep, even if sometimes people think im a lightweight. That doesn't happen too often cause I make sure im rested.

Diagnosed when 19, not 28.

Murtinho

Theres so little coffeine in the instant coffee ppl drink in Ireland that it hardly matters.

sureyoudhaveta

Just wondering for anyone with epilepsy here do any of you ever suffer from these symptoms?

When I'm havin the grande mal seizure, when I'm coming round I start to scream my head off!! I can't breathe properly and I feel as if I'm about to die! Do any other epileptics suffer from these characteristics or are there any of you out there who've seen seizures like these?
I'm always curious because an epileptic never remembers what happens afterwards.

dx

woop

Murtinho wrote: »

Theres so little coffeine in the instant coffee ppl drink in Ireland that it hardly matters.

listen without hard evidence that it has no effect theres no point in saying it has no effect because theres not much caffeine in our coffee.........its not helpful and a little amount could effect people differently

op what form do youre seizures take?
I can see how it might make them more frequent
but maybe in very simple thinking it keeps you awake so youre less likely to have a seizure
dont rule out lifestyle in all of this perhaps when you were in college youre lifestyle meant you were more rested and this led to less seizures as you said you are more likely to suffer one upon staying up

these are just my thoughts
not fact get onto pubmed for that

btw do you smoke?

wilbaz

when you've had your seizure and starting to come round, everybody as a tendency to put you in a recovery position that you cant breathe in.
i had one and smashed all my head and scratched down the side of a wall, and everybody looks at you and walks past thinking you're some kind of a piss head.
screaming is normal and disinoriated is another when im coming around i cant even say my name and date of birth or address but if you give me a pen after a feww minutes i can write my name and address but not speak it.

lynnsback

There doesn't seem to be many studies on caffeine and seizures in humans. There seems to be lots on rats, but I am one who believes extrapolating from animal studies is not always the best idea.

This article by a very well respected biologist is very pro coffee and caffeine for a variety of quite sound reasons. His articles are HARD work, but he is an extremely lateral thinker: http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/caffeine.shtmlc

Sorry I can't offer any specific studies on humans. I won't get my ATHENS password till October.

Vorsprung

On an unrelated note, I saw this case report about the dangers of coffeee ahem intoxication:

Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2010 Aug wrote:

Caffeine is a natural alkaloid methylxanthine that is found in various plants such as coffee or tea. Symptoms of a severe overdose may present with hypokalemia, hyponatremia, ventricular arrhythmias, hypertension followed by hypotension, respiratory failure, seizures, rhabdomyolysis, ventricular fibrillation and finally circulatory collapse. A 21-year-old woman called for the ambulance herself soon after the ingestion of about 10,000 mg of caffeine. At the arrival of the ambulance, the patient went into cardiac arrest almost immediately. After a total resuscitation period of 34 min including seven counter-shocks and 2 mg epinephrine, the patient was stable enough to be transferred to the hospital. The patient soon went into VF again and received two more counter-shocks and 1 mg epinephrine and finally an intravenous bolus dose of 300 mg amiodarone. The initial arterial blood gas showed pH at 6.47, lactate at 33 mmol/l and potassium level at 2.3 mmol/l. Unfortunately, no blood samples for caffeine analysis were taken. Three days after hospital admission, the patient developed myoclonus, which did not respond to medical treatment. Excessive intake of caffeine may produce arrhythmias and pronounced hypokalemia and ensuing ventricular fibrillation. In case of counter-shock-resistant VF, it can be necessary to give an early loading dose of amiodarone. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to replace the potassium as early as possible. Epinephrine and buffer solutions used during resuscitation may further decrease blood potassium levels and should be administrated cautiously. Epinephrine can be replaced by other vasopressor drugs, such as vasopressin without effects on beta-receptors.

What ALS algorithm gives 2mg of adrenaline in 34 minutes?!?!

On a related note, here's a link to a Polish review article (2007) that suggests the hypothesis that caffeine lowers seizure threshold

Przegl Lek. 2007 wrote:

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Caffeine, a methylxanthine derivative, is contained in coffee or tea, chocolate as well as in some beverages. In addition, it may be added to some analgesics. At high doses, similarly to other methylxanthine derivatives (theophylline, pentoxifylline) caffeine induces seizure activity in rodents.

THE AIM OF STUDY: If caffeine intake from coffee drinking resulting in pharmacologically active plasma caffeine concentrations--can lead to diverse interactions with other medications.

RESULTS: Since 90s of the XX century, there are experimental data available pointing to the caffeine-induced impairment of the protective activity of a number of antiepileptic drugs in basic models of epilepsy in rodents. Acute caffeine, in doses far below its convulsive potential (almost 10-20 fold lower than the ED50 of the methylxanthine of 2.03 mmol/kg for the induction of seizures), produced a significant reduction in the anticonvulsant effects of carbamazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, and valproate against maximal electroshock-induced seizures in mice. This interaction was pharmacodynamic in nature since caffeine did not affect the plasma concentrations of these anti-epileptics. Interestingly, there was no tolerance to this hazardous effect of caffeine since its administration at the same dosages (0.12-0.24 mmollkg) also resulted in the impairment of the protection provided by antiepileptic drugs, this effect being even more pronounced in the case of phenobarbital and carbamazepine. In case of newer antiepileptics, both acute and chronic caffeine decreased the protective potential of gabapentin and topiramate but not that of lamotrigine and tiagabine.

CONCLUSIONS: The existing clinical data confirm the experimental results in that caffeine intake in epileptic patients results in increased seizure frequency. It may be concluded that epileptic patients should limit their daily intake of caffeine.

Again, I'm not at work so can't read these studies in full. My Polish is also rusty.