Saturday, February, 11, 2012

Alcohol withdrawal

Table of Contents

Symptoms

Alcohol withdrawal may involve psychological and physical symptoms.

Mild-to-moderate psychological symptoms:

  • Anxiety or nervousness
  • Depression
  • Difficulty thinking clearly
  • Fatigue
  • Irritability or easy excitability
  • Jumpiness or shakiness
  • Nightmares
  • Rapid emotional changes

Mild-to-moderate physical symptoms:

  • Clammy skin
  • Enlarged (dilated) pupils
  • Headache
  • Insomnia (sleeping difficulty)
  • Loss of appetite
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Pallor
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Sweating
  • Tremor of the hands or other body parts

Severe symptoms:

  • Agitation
  • Delirium tremens -- a state of severe confusion and visual hallucinations
  • Fever
  • Seizures

Signs and tests

When evaluating you for alcohol withdrawal, your health care provider will check for:

  • Abnormal eye movements
  • Abnormal heart rhythms
  • Dehydration
  • Elevated temperature
  • General body shaking
  • Liver failure
  • Rapid breathing
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Shaky hands

A toxicology screen may be performed, as well as other blood tests.


Review Date: 03/29/2010
Reviewed By: David B. Merrill, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)