BACKGROUND: Alcohol dependence during withdrawal and also in abstinent period in many cases is related to reduced inhibitory functions and kindling that may appear in the form of psychosensory symptoms similar to temporal lobe epilepsy frequently in conditions of normal EEG and without seizures. Because temporal lobe epileptic activity tend to spread between hemispheres, it is possible to suppose that measures reflecting interhemispheric information transfer such as electrodermal activity (EDA) might be related to the psychosensory symptoms. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We have performed measurement of bilateral EDA, psychosensory symptoms (LSCL-33) and alcohol craving (ACQ) in 34 alcohol dependent patients and 32 healthy controls. The results in alcohol dependent patients show that during rest conditions the psychosensory symptoms (LSCL-33) are related to EDA transinformation (PTI) between left and right EDA records (Spearman r = 0.44, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The result may present potentially useful clinical finding suggesting a possibility to indirectly assess epileptiform changes in alcohol dependent patients.

Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress Department of Psychiatry 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Wise RA. The neurobiology of craving: implications for the understanding and treatment of addiction. J Abnorm Psychol. 1988;97:118–132. PubMed

Duka T, Townshend JM, Collier K, Stephens DN. Kindling of withdrawal: a study of craving and anxiety after multiple detoxifications in alcoholic inpatients. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2002;26:785–95. PubMed

De Witte P, Pinto E, Ansseau M, Verbanck P. Alcohol and withdrawal: from animal research to clinical issues. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2003;27:189–97. PubMed

Glue P, Nutt D. Overexcitement and disinhibition. Dynamic neurotransmitter interactions in alcohol withdrawal. Br J Psychiatry. 1990;157:491–499. PubMed

Breese GR, Overstreet DH, Knapp DJ. Conceptual framework for the etiology of alcoholism: a “kindling”/stress hypothesis. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2005;178:367–80. PubMed PMC

McIntyre DC, Poulter MO, Gilby K. Kindling: some old and some new. Epilepsy Res. 2002;50:79–92. PubMed

Post RM. Neurobiology of seizures and behavioral abnormalities. Epilepsia. 2004;45(Suppl 2):5–14. PubMed

Bertram E. The relevance of kindling for human epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2007;48(Suppl 2):65–74. PubMed

Brailowsky S, Garcia O. Ethanol, GABA and epilepsy. Arch Med Res. 1999;30:3–9. PubMed

Krystal JH, Staley J, Mason G, Petrakis IL, Kaufman J, et al. Gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors and alcoholism: intoxication, dependence, vulnerability, and treatment. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:957–68. PubMed

Malcolm R, Myrick H, Brady KT, Ballenger JC. Update on anticonvulsants for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal. Am J Addict. 2001;10(Suppl):16–23. PubMed

Book SW, Myrick H. Novel anticonvulsants in the treatment of alcoholism. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2005;14:371–6. PubMed

Roberts RJ, Gorman LL, Lee GP, Hines ME, Richardson ED, et al. The phenomenology of multiple partial seizure-like symptoms without stereotyped spells: an epilepsy spectrum disorder? Epilepsy Res. 1992;13:167–177. PubMed

Teicher MH, Andersen SL, Polcari A, Anderson CM, et al. The neurobiological consequences of early stress and childhood maltreatment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2003;27:33–44. PubMed

Bob P, Palus M, Susta M, Glaslova K. Sensitization, epileptic-like symptoms and local synchronization in patients with paranoid schizophrenia. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2010;34:143–6. PubMed

McIntyre DC, Gilby KL. Mapping seizure pathways in the temporal lobe. Epilepsia. 2008;49(Suppl 3):23–30. PubMed

Teicher MH, Glod CA, Surrey J, Swett C., Jr Early childhood abuse and limbic system ratings in adult psychiatric outpatients. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1993;5:301–306. PubMed

Teicher M, Tomoda A, Andersen SL. Neurobiological consequences of early stress and childhood maltreatment: Are results from human and animal studies comparable? Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006;1071:313–323. PubMed

Weinand ME, Labiner DM, Ahern GL. Temporal lobe seizure interhemispheric propagation time depends on non-epileptic cortical cerebral blood flow. Epilepsy Res. 2001;44:33–39. PubMed

Weinand ME, Hussain N, Labiner DM, Ahern GL. Correlation of electrocorticographic to clinical seizure onset and interhemispheric propagation times in temporal lobe epilepsy. Pathophysiology. 2006;13:233–6. PubMed

Poprawski TJ, Pluzyczka AN, Park Y, Chennamchetty VN, Halaris A, et al. Multimodality imaging in a depressed patient with violent behavior and temporal lobe seizures. Clin EEG Neurosci. 2007;38:175–9. PubMed

Rullmann M, Anwander A, Dannhauer M, Warfield SK, Duffy FH, et al. EEG source analysis of epileptiform activity using a 1 mm anisotropic hexahedra finite element head model. Neuroimage. 2009;44:399–410. PubMed PMC

Baumgartner C, Lurge RS, Leutmezer F. Autonomic symptoms during epileptic seizures. Epileptic Disord. 2001;3:103–116. PubMed

Devinsky O. Effects of seizures on autonomic and cardiovascular function. Epilepsy Curr. 2004;4:43–46. PubMed PMC

Mangina CA, Beuzeron-Mangina JH. Direct electrical stimulation of specific human brain structures and bilateral electrodermal activity. Int J Psychophysiol. 1996;22:1–8. PubMed

Critchley HD. Electrodermal Responses: What Happens in the Brain. Neuroscientist. 2002;8:132–142. PubMed

American Psychiatric Association. American Psychiatric Association, DSM IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. ed 14. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1994.

Sheehan DV, Lecrubier Y, Sheehan KH, Amorim P, Janavs J, et al. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. J Clin Psychiatry. 1998;59:22–33. PubMed

Raabe A, Grüsser SM, Wessa M, Podschus J, Flor H. The assessment of craving: Psychometric properties, factor structure and a revised version of the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire (ACQ). Addiction. 2005;100:227–234. PubMed

Kantz H, Schreiber T. Nonlinear time series analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1997.

Lambertz M, Vandenhouten R, Grebe R, Langhorst P. Phase transitions in the common brainstem and related systems investigated by nonstationary time series analysis. J Auton Nerv Syst. 2000;78:141–57. PubMed

Influence of cerebellar stereotactic stimulation on left-right electrodermal information transference in a patient with cerebral palsy

Subclinical epileptiform process in patients with unipolar depression and its indirect psychophysiological manifestations