There are many negative side effects associated with drug abuse. But can drug abuse cause seizures? According to research, yes.
Seizures happen when you have abnormal activity in the brain. People with epilepsy tend to have a higher risk of developing seizures and struggling with seizures on a regular basis.
However, you don’t necessarily have to have epilepsy to risk drug-induced seizures. While drug-induced seizures are limited in their representation, they can certainly happen.
Whether you have already experienced a seizure or not, it’s important that you get treatment for addiction today so that you can reduce your risk of drug abuse-related seizures and all of the subsequent harm that’s associated with ongoing seizures.
Can Drug Abuse Cause Seizures?
Yes, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), drug abuse and particularly drug intoxication can cause seizures. An average of nine percent of epileptic seizures are caused by drug abuse.
How?
Exposure to certain drugs can cause abnormal neuronal discharges in the subcortical regions of your brain. This means that drugs negatively impact the way in which your neurons fire.
In some extreme cases, your neurons can fire so abnormally that they generate epileptic-like brain activity or seizures as well as convulsions.
Drug-induced seizures result from changed neural pathways and over-excited or otherwise inhibited neurotransmitters that need to function normally for your brain to work the way it should.
When certain neurotransmitters are inhibited, it means a reduced amount of neural activity that can sedate necessary functions in your brain. Likewise, when certain pathway activity in your brain is excited, it can cause an overactivity of those neurotransmitters that can over-activate the brain and result in seizures.
Changes to GABA activity, in particular, have been associated with seizures in people who have no history of epilepsy or seizures but have a history of drug abuse.
Why Treatment for Drug Abuse Matters
If you have epilepsy and you have experienced a drug-induced seizure, or even if you haven’t, it’s important that you seek professional treatment to start your path to recovery.
Recurrent or prolonged seizures can cause several complications, requiring medication and medical intervention. The more you have them, the more damaging this can be to your brain.
While an isolated, brief seizure might not kill your neurons, repetitive seizures or severe seizures absolutely can. The more you experience seizures brought about by drug abuse, the more you are likely to struggle with increased neuronal death, which can subsequently have negative changes in your brain function, complete loss of brain cells, and lead to chronic epilepsy.
The younger you are, the more damaging these effects can be, inhibiting executive function, speech and language development, memory, and attention.
Can drug abuse cause seizures if you don’t have epilepsy?
Yes!
Even if you don’t have epilepsy, seizures can happen as a toxic complication of taking too many drugs or experiencing drug withdrawal syndromes. Six percent of new-onset seizures happen because of drug toxicity.
Getting Treatment for Drug Abuse at Hammocks Recovery
With Hammocks Recovery, we provide specialized inpatient drug rehab for those struggling with these issues. We know that people who are struggling with addiction may not be fully aware of all of the consequences, like the risk of seizures. Some clients might not realize they have epilepsy or that drug abuse could interfere with it.
However, everyone deserves a chance to recover in a safe, supportive environment where relaxation and skill-building are key.
As a women’s-only treatment center, we know that women are more likely to experience certain types of addictions, particularly as they try to mask other symptoms of things like depression or anxiety. Women, for example, are more likely than men to become addicted to prescription drugs. Women are also at a higher risk of seizures if they have a history of epilepsy.
These drugs can put women at a higher risk of developing things like seizures as well as secondary mental health disorders. By addressing both of these issues at the same time, women have a much higher chance of success. Doing so in a safe, gender-specific environment lends itself to improved results through security and compassion.
Change your life today. Contact our caring admissions coordinators to verify your insurance or ask questions about our gender-specific women’s rehab program.
