Weekday distribution of alcohol consumption in Norway: Influence on the occurrence of epileptic seizures and stroke?

Binge drinking in weekends is a predominant feature of alcohol consumption in Norway. Neurological diseases, such as seizures and stroke, have been reported to occur in temporal relation to alcohol intoxication and withdrawal. We wanted to investigate weekday variances in alcohol consumption in relation to onset of neurological symptoms in these disorders. Consecutive patients admitted for generalised tonic-clonic seizures and stroke were included in the study. Control groups were consecutively hospitalised sciatica patients, outpatients with epilepsy, and healthy subjects. A record of the day-by-day consumption level in the last week was obtained. Seizures occurring in subjects with hazardous alcohol consumption, operationally defined by a score > 8 in the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT positive) were considered related to alcohol use. 31% of seizure patients were binge drinkers whereas in the other groups this proportion did not exceed 18%. In all groups, alcohol consumption peaked on Saturdays. More seizures occurred on Mondays compared to Saturdays, with a diminishing trend through the week. AUDIT negative seizure patients seemed to cause this difference, which could only in part be explained by binge drinking. AUDIT positive seizure patients had a higher and more evenly distributed alcohol intake through the week, and the occurrence of seizures did not differ between days of the week. No weekday differences were found for stroke patients. Alcohol consumption peaked two days prior to the onset of withdrawal seizures. Conclusions: The weekend drinking pattern was confirmed. There was a diminishing trend of seizure admissions through the week, which seemed only in part to be due to binge drinking.