Seizures in a night club

Abstract

David Wood and coauthors (April 28, p 1490)1Wood DM Dargan PI Button J et al.Collapse, reported seizure—and an unexpected pill.Lancet. 2007; 369: 1490Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (62) Google Scholar report the case of an 18-year-old woman who was admitted to the emergency department after collapse and seizures in a nightclub after ingestion of pills that were later found to contain 1-benzylpiperazine. We agree with Roland Staack2Staack RF Piperazine designer drugs of abuse.Lancet. 2007; 369: 1411-1413Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar that the importance of this report is to raise clinicians' awareness of the growing group of patients who are intoxicated with substances other than the conventional drugs of abuse. Conventional drugs of abuse are easily detectable by rapid immunochromatographic urine testing in the emergency department. Further analysis is expensive and often not routinely available.As an addendum, we report a similar case of an 18-year-old woman who collapsed and had seizures in a night club. Blood alcohol testing and screening tests for conventional drugs of abuse were negative. The only substances the woman had taken were 1000 mg aspirin and a popular energy drink containing sugar, taurine, glucuronolactone, vitamin B-complex, and caffeine.The combination of caffeine and aspirin has beneficial effects on mood and performance.3Lieberman HR Wurtman RJ Emde GG Coviella IL The effects of caffeine and aspirin on mood and performance.J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1987; 7: 315-320Crossref PubMed Google Scholar Epileptic seizures during aspirin and caffeine withdrawal have been reported for many years.4Antonaci F Sances G Manni R Buzzi MG Epileptic seizure during aspirin and caffeine withdrawal in a drug induced headache.Funct Neurol. 1996; 11: 333-337PubMed Google Scholar New reports have drawn attention to energy drinks and aspirin as possible causes of seizures.5Iyadurai SJ Chung SS New-onset seizures in adults: Possible association with consumption of popular energy drinks.Epilepsy Behav. 2007; 10: 504-508Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (112) Google ScholarLike Wood and colleagues' patient, ours was asymptomatic within a few hours. However, our report underlines the growing need to be aware of intoxication with unconventional substances when screening tests for drugs of abuse are negative.We declare that we have no conflict of interest. David Wood and coauthors (April 28, p 1490)1Wood DM Dargan PI Button J et al.Collapse, reported seizure—and an unexpected pill.Lancet. 2007; 369: 1490Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (62) Google Scholar report the case of an 18-year-old woman who was admitted to the emergency department after collapse and seizures in a nightclub after ingestion of pills that were later found to contain 1-benzylpiperazine. We agree with Roland Staack2Staack RF Piperazine designer drugs of abuse.Lancet. 2007; 369: 1411-1413Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar that the importance of this report is to raise clinicians' awareness of the growing group of patients who are intoxicated with substances other than the conventional drugs of abuse. Conventional drugs of abuse are easily detectable by rapid immunochromatographic urine testing in the emergency department. Further analysis is expensive and often not routinely available. As an addendum, we report a similar case of an 18-year-old woman who collapsed and had seizures in a night club. Blood alcohol testing and screening tests for conventional drugs of abuse were negative. The only substances the woman had taken were 1000 mg aspirin and a popular energy drink containing sugar, taurine, glucuronolactone, vitamin B-complex, and caffeine. The combination of caffeine and aspirin has beneficial effects on mood and performance.3Lieberman HR Wurtman RJ Emde GG Coviella IL The effects of caffeine and aspirin on mood and performance.J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1987; 7: 315-320Crossref PubMed Google Scholar Epileptic seizures during aspirin and caffeine withdrawal have been reported for many years.4Antonaci F Sances G Manni R Buzzi MG Epileptic seizure during aspirin and caffeine withdrawal in a drug induced headache.Funct Neurol. 1996; 11: 333-337PubMed Google Scholar New reports have drawn attention to energy drinks and aspirin as possible causes of seizures.5Iyadurai SJ Chung SS New-onset seizures in adults: Possible association with consumption of popular energy drinks.Epilepsy Behav. 2007; 10: 504-508Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (112) Google Scholar Like Wood and colleagues' patient, ours was asymptomatic within a few hours. However, our report underlines the growing need to be aware of intoxication with unconventional substances when screening tests for drugs of abuse are negative. We declare that we have no conflict of interest.