Triggers, dehydration?

[janewill]

I have JME and I know my main triggers are tiredness, too much alcohol and stress. Can dehydration be a trigger? I had wondered this previously and then when I had a seizure in Australia, at the hospital they put me on a drip to rehydrate me, so it has made me wonder even more.

[Andrew Kelso]

Dear janewill
This is quite a difficult question to answer. You’re absolutely correct that alcohol, stress, and lack of sleep are common provoking factors for seizures in people with epilepsy, particularly JME.
Dehydration is often mentioned by patients as a potential trigger for their seizures, but when I ask those patients what they mean by dehydration, they describe symptoms that would be judged as very mild by a medical definition. Clinical dehydration is actually quite a serious medical condition, is usually associated with significant symptoms (unconsciousness, kidney failure), and can be associated with seizures when very severe.

However, many people consider themselves to be dehydrated when they are thirsty or have very dark coloured urine, and from a medical point of view these symptoms on their own represent very mild dehydration, usually treated effectively with a few big glasses of water. It’s this feeling of being thirsty that patients usually mean when they ask this question, and in my mind, there’s no link between those symptoms and seizures.

Don’t be surprised that you were put on a drip when you were admitted to hospital after a seizure – it’s something that many doctors and nurses perform when someone’s admitted to hospital, and doesn’t necessarily mean that you were dehydrated at the time.

Andrew