Tuesday, October 8, 2024
The Latest DUI News and Information From DUI Defense Attorneys Across the Country

Auto-Brewery Syndrome Update 2020

Readers of this news blog may recall an interesting post about “Auto Brewery Syndrome” (ABS) posted by one of our California contributors, Lawrence Taylor.  This syndrome occurs when bowel abnormalities affect patients by creating a yeast overgrowth, usually candida, in the G.I. tract.  This causes fermentation of ingested carbohydrates, producing enough alcohol to result in drunkeness.[1] 

Interestingly, in 2020 a distinction from traditional ABS was made in a case study published in the peer-reviewed Annals of Internal Medicine.  The treating physicians proposed referring to the phenomenon as “urinary auto-brewery syndrome” or “bladder fermentation syndrome.” The study involved a 61-year old woman diagnosed with cirrhosis and poorly controlled diabetes who sought placement on the liver transplant wait-list at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She had previously been denied placement on the wait-list at a different hospital due to a later discovered mis-diagnosis of alcohol addiction.  The patient, however, denied ever consuming alcohol. The case study’s authors discovered that the traditional symptoms of blood alcohol and or symptoms of intoxication were not present in this instance because it was the woman’s bladder rather than her gastrointestinal system creating the alcohol.

DUI defense lawyers need to become more aware of this medical condition to use as a potential defense of involuntary intoxication, thus avoiding convictions or more onerous punishment.

[1] Mullholland and Townsend, “Bladder Beer – A New Clinical Observation”, 95 Transactions of the American Clinical Climatological Association 34 (1983).

About the Author: Steven Oberman has been licensed in Tennessee since 1980, and successfully defended over 2,500 DUI defendants.  Among the many honors bestowed upon him, Steve served as Dean of the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. (NCDD) and currently serves as chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers DUI Committee.  Steve was the first lawyer in Tennessee to be Board Certified as a DUI Defense Specialist by the NCDD.

He is the author of DUI: The Crime & Consequences in Tennessee, updated annually since 1991 (Thomson-West), and co-author with Lawrence Taylor of the national treatise, Drunk Driving Defense, 8th edition (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen).  Steve has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee Law School since 1993 and has received a number of prestigious awards for his faculty contributions.  He is a popular international speaker, having spoken at legal seminars in 30 states, the District of Columbia and six foreign countries.  After being named a Fulbright Scholar, Steve was honored to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Latvia Law School in the capital city of Riga, Latvia during the Spring Semester of 2019.  If you would like to contact the author, please visit his website.

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Steve Oberman

Since graduating from the University of Tennessee Law School in 1980, Mr. Oberman has become established as a national authority on the intricacies of DUI defense law. Steve is a former Dean of the National College for DUI Defense, co-author of a national treatise ("Drunk Driving Defense" published by Aspen/Wolters-Kluwer), and author of "DUI: The Crime and Consequences in Tennessee" (published by Thomson-Reuters/West). He has taught thousands of lawyers, judges, and members of the general public about the intricacies of this crime. Steve was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to teach American Criminal Law and American Trial Advocacy at the University of Latvia School of Law in 2019; in 2023 taught for a semester as a visiting professor at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Faculty of Law in Budapest, Hungary; and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Law in 2024. Steve has also presented at a number of judicial conferences in the United States and Canada as well as for law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Czech Republic Police Academy. As a Tennessee DUI attorney, Mr. Oberman has successfully defended over two thousand clients charged with Driving Under the Influence of alcohol and/or drugs. In 2006, Mr. Oberman became the first DUI lawyer in Tennessee to be recognized by the National College for DUI Defense as a Board Certified Specialist in the area of DUI Defense law.

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