Most patients during withdrawal do not require antiepileptic drugs, as the entire episode of seizure activity—whether a single seizure or a brief flurry of seizures—may have terminated before the patient is brought to medical attention. The parenteral administration of diazepam or sodium phenobarbital early in the withdrawal period does, however, prevent withdrawal fits in patients with a previous history of this disorder, as well as in those who might be expected to develop seizures on withdrawal of alcohol. This approach has been supported by the observations of D’Onofrio and colleagues that intravenous lorazepam (2 mg in 2 mL of normal saline) was highly effective in preventing recurrent seizures after a first seizure in the same withdrawal period. Only 3 of 100 patients so treated had a second seizure within 48 h, compared to 21 of 86 untreated patients. The long-term administration of anticonvulsants is neither necessary nor practical: if such patients remain abstinent, they will be free of seizures; if they resume drinking, they often abandon their medications. Furthermore, it is not certain that continued administration of anticonvulsants dependably prevents abstinence seizures. The rare instances of status epilepticus should be managed like status of any other type (see Chap. 15). In alcoholics with a history of idiopathic or posttraumatic epilepsy, the goal of treatment should be abstinence from alcohol, because of the tendency of even short periods of drinking to precipitate seizures. Such patients need to be maintained on anticonvulsant drugs.
This is the most dramatic and grave of all the acute alcoholic illnesses. It is characterized by profound confusion, delusions, vivid hallucinations, tremor, agitation, and sleeplessness, as well as by the signs of increased autonomic nervous system activity—that is, dilated pupils, fever, tachycardia, and profuse perspiration. The clinical features of delirium are presented in detail in Chap. 19 as they relate to delirium tremens (DTs) and to other illnesses that simulate it.
Delirium tremens develops in one of several settings. The patient, an excessive and steady drinker for many years, may have been admitted to the hospital for an unrelated illness, accident, or operation and, after 2 to 4 days, occasionally even later, becomes delirious. Or, following a prolonged drinking binge, the patient may have experienced several days of tremulousness and hallucinosis or one or more seizures and may even be recovering from these symptoms when delirium tremens develops, rather abruptly as a rule.
As to the frequency of delirium tremens, Foy and Kay reported an incidence of 0.65 percent of all patients admitted for other reasons to a large general hospital. Among 200 consecutive alcoholics admitted to a city hospital,
Ferguson and colleagues reported that 24 percent developed delirium tremens; of these, 8 percent died—figures that are considerably higher than those recorded in our hospitals (see below). Of course, the reported incidence of delirium tremens will vary greatly, depending on the population served by a particular hospital.
In the majority of cases, delirium tremens is benign and short-lived, ending as abruptly as it begins. Consumed by relentless activity and wakefulness for several days, the patient falls into a deep sleep and then awakens lucid, quiet, and exhausted, with virtually no memory of the events of the delirious period. Less commonly, the delirious state subsides gradually with intermittent episodes of recurrence. In either event, when delirium tremens occurs as a single episode, the duration is 72 h or less in more than 80 percent of cases. Less frequently still, there may be one or more relapses, several episodes of delirium of varying severity being separated by intervals of relative lucidity—the entire process lasting for several days or occasionally for as long as 4 to 5 weeks.