Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

Don't forget "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard Nimoy.

Yes, thank you! I was trying to remember one more mechanism that I discussed in my paper. You hit the nail on the head.

Seizure is a potential symptom of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome caused by thiamine deficiency. This is distinct from seizures caused by alcohol withdrawal.

Epileptic seizures can be a sign of Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE), which is the acute stage of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

The syndrome is more easily treated in the WE phase. At that point, it need not progress to Korsakoff syndrome. With Korsakoff, there may be improvement in signs and symptoms with treatment, but there is likely to be brain damage.

Oh! I can give you some answers here! I wrote a paper on this a couple of semesters back for a human physiology class.

1. Alcohol interferes with absorption of thiamine in the gut.

2. Alcohol interferes with the conversion of thiamine to thiamine pyrophosphate, which is the form that participates in the citric acid cycle.

3. Alcoholics tend to have poor diets overall.

4. They will often have other nutritional deficiencies as well, but thiamine deficiency in alcoholics can lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome which can cause brain damage, cognitive deficits, memory loss, and even death. So treating thiamine deficiency is often a higher priority than other deficiencies.