INTRODUCTION Benzodiazepine treatment of life-threatening gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) withdrawal is frequently unsatisfactory. Animal studies suggest strongly that treatment with GABA(B) agonists, such as baclofen, will be a more effective strategy. METHODS A case report from the medical intensive care unit (ICU) of the university tertiary care hospital. RESULTS A 61-year-old woman was admi...

AIMS In our work, the factors affecting the plasma level of cytokine, tumour necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and liver function tests values in alcohol dependent males after alcohol abuse period were analysed. METHODS We studied forty-seven alcoholics, without severe liver disease, who were abstinent no longer than 14 days before the study beginning. In all 24-h gastric pH-metry, endoscopy, serum...

AIMS In several studies, possible risk factors/predictors for severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), i.e. delirium tremens (DT) and/or seizures, have been investigated. We have recently observed that low blood platelet count could be such a risk factor/predictor. We therefore investigated whether such an association could be found using a large number of alcohol-dependent individuals (n = 33...

Alcohol withdrawal is a syndrome that is the result of adaptive changes in the brain secondary to chronic alcohol use and is associated with changes in many neurotransmitter, neuropeptide, and hormonal systems. Long-term exposure to ethanol leads to an imbalance in different excitatory (especially glutamate, a major excitatory amino acid), and inhibitory neurotransmitter (especially GABA, a maj...

Annotation. Polytrauma is considered the main cause of death among people younger 45 years. Among trauma patiens 15-20% regularly take alcohol, close to 32% patients who needed intensive therapy alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), and 5-20% progressed delirium. The aim study analyze dynamics autoimmune response markers neurodestruction in blood with moderate polytrauma withdrawal, complicated by...

AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) exon 3 polymorphisms (48 bp VNTR) in the pathogenesis of alcoholism. This polymorphism was investigated in the association study in a whole group of alcoholics (n = 122) and in homogenous overlapping subgroups: 1) with early age of onset of alcoholism (AOO < or = 26 years) (n = 65) and 2) with a co-occurrence of d...

Frailty is a “multidimensional syndrome of loss of reserves (energy, physical ability, cognition, health) that gives rise to vulnerability.”1 Younger seniors, generally speaking, are not frail. In fact, Canadian seniors between 65 and 75 years of age report limitation in activities of daily living similar to those adults aged 45 to 64 years.2 However, one-quarter of seniors aged 85 years or old...

authors. "Secondary addiction," involving as it does physiological tolerance and physical dependence, may develop in any type of habitual drinker. This is a subject which one may expect will be dealt with more fully in the subsequent volumes. In Chapter II, "Alcoholic Mental Disorders," many good clinical observations are summarized, but few conclusions can be drawn from such data, especially o...

A new rating scale for the quantitative assessment of the alcohol-withdrawal syndrome (AWS) was developed from the CIWA-A scale by item analysis based on the data from 132 alcoholic patients. The clinical evaluation of this AWS scale in a second sample of 256 alcoholic patients showed that it adequately assessed the course and severity of the AWS. The AWS scale provides data for a rational stra...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To standardize treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in internal medicine patients using an adult AWS practice guideline with a symptom-triggered management approach. DESIGN Prospective interventional (pilot group) and retrospective (control group). SETTING University teaching hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-two internal medicine patients identified as being at risk for...