A patient with heroin withdrawal presenting with new onset seizures; a case report

The Missing Link Between Opioid Use Disorder and Seizures During Opioid Withdrawal: A Case Series from North India

“…This concords with Panda et al and Basnayake et al who reported only transient/no use of anticonvulsants for managing seizures in opioid withdrawal. 6,8 Ambekar et al mentioned the role of OST in preventing opioid withdrawal and relapse. However, we highlight its role in preventing seizures related to withdrawal.…”

“…Few studies have described complicated opioid withdrawal where a seizure occurred along with other features of opioid withdrawal. [6][7][8] Here we report eight cases of opioid use disorder that presented to our emergency department with episodes of seizures after cessation of opioid use. We try to investigate the various possible etiologies of seizures in opioid withdrawal and compare them with available national and international literature.…”

New-onset Seizures Due to Heroin Addiction

“…[ 4 5 ] However, seizures after heroin withdrawal after the neonatal period is extremely rare and only a few anecdotal case reports and case series are available in this regard. [ 6 7 8 ] Here, we report a case of new-onset multiple generalized tonic-clonic seizures in an adolescent boy after withdrawal from heroin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case in the adolescent age group.…”

“…Published literature has only a few cases of seizures after heroin withdrawal [ 6 7 8 ] [ Table 1 ]. A systematic search in MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect was performed with MESH terms “Heroin”, “Opioid”, “Withdrawal” “Substance abuse” and “Seizure” alone or in combination, which yielded 34 articles.…”

“…All these patients were between 20 and 38 years and seizures occurred between 2 to 6 days after abstinence. [ 6 7 8 ] All patients had generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Neuroimaging and electroencephalogram were normal in all the patients.…”