Why would a junkie have a grand mal seizure during withdrawal?
On the television show Fear the Walking Dead, one of the main characters is a heroin addict. After a couple of days without heroin, he goes into intense withdrawal, and either has a grand mal seizure or pretends to. His family is used to his addiction, and when his mother returns home from an errand, his sister says, rather matter-of-factly, "He went grand mal".
According to this website, heroin withdrawal alone doesn't cause seizures:
Heroin withdrawal on its own does not produce seizures, heart attacks, strokes, or delirium tremens.
So why would a person in this situation have a seizure? Is it more likely to be the result of his sudden withdrawal (contradicting the quote above), or is it more likely to be a side effect of the use of heroin itself, or is it more likely that he has a medical condition that causes seizures, but which is totally unrelated to his addiction?
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It's not really medically accurate, unless there are other drugs of abuse present, or some other disease etiology. The quote that you reference is correct, heroin addiction by itself shouldn't produce seizures as part of withdrawal symptoms. However, there can be other drugs present (Such as alcohol, which can definitely produce seizures during withdrawal) which could complicate the matter.
Additionally, if the person is a long time heroin abuser, then withdrawal symptoms would most likely start much sooner than a couple of days, possibly even within hours of their last dose wearing off.
The wikipedia site for opioid addiction gives a pretty detailed rundown of opiate addiction and other factors that can enhance or show predisposition to addiction. There are many other sites (Most of them rehabilitation facilities) that give fairly detailed rundowns of the withdrawal process and symptoms that can occur during that time.
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