This combined with increased noradrenergic activity results in the symptoms of delirium tremens. Diagnosis
Diagnosis is mainly based on symptoms. In a person with delirium tremens it is important to rule out other associated problems such as electrolyte abnormalities, pancreatitis, and alcoholic hepatitis. Treatment
Delirium tremens due to alcohol withdrawal can be treated with benzodiazepines. High doses may be necessary to prevent death. Amounts given are based on the symptoms. Typically the person is kept sedated with benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, lorazepam, chlordiazepoxide, or oxazepam. In some cases antipsychotics, such as haloperidol may also be used. Older drugs such as paraldehyde and clomethiazole were formerly the traditional treatment but have now largely been superseded by the benzodiazepines.Acamprosate is occasionally used in addition to other treatments, and is then carried on into long-term use to reduce the risk of relapse. If status epilepticus occurs it is treated in the usual way.It can also be helpful to provide a well lit room as people often have hallucinations.Alcoholic beverages can also be prescribed as a treatment for delirium tremens, but this practice is not universally supported.High doses of thiamine often by the intravenous route is also recommended. Society and culture
Nicknames for delirium tremens include "the DTs", "the shakes", "the oopizootics", "barrel-fever", "the blue horrors", "bottleache", "bats", "the drunken horrors", "seeing pink elephants", "gallon distemper", "quart mania", "heebie jeebies", "pink spiders", and "riding the ghost train", as well as "ork orks", "the zoots", "the 750 itch", and "pint paralysis".
Professor Parkins while staying at the Globe Inn when in coastal Burnstow to "improve his game" of golf, despite being "a convinced disbeliever in what is called the supernatural", when face to face with an entity in his "double-bed room" during the storys climax, is heard "uttering cry upon cry at the utmost pitch of his voice" though later "was somehow cleared of the ready suspicion of delirium tremens". In the 1945 film The Lost Weekend, Ray Milland won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his depiction of a character who experiences delirium tremens after being hospitalized, hallucinating that he saw a bat fly in and eat a mouse poking through a wall.Writer Jack Kerouac details his experiences with delirium tremens in his book Big Sur.The M*A*S*H TV series episode "Bottoms Up" (season 9, episode 15) featured a side story about a nurse (Cpt. Helen Whitfield) who was found to be drinking heavily off-duty. By the culmination of the episode, after a confrontation by Maj. Margaret Houlihan, the character swears off alcohol and presumably quits immediately. At mealtime, roughly 48 hours later, Whitfield becomes hysterical upon being served food in the Mess tent, claiming that things are crawling onto her from it. Margaret and Col. Sherman Potter subdue her. Potter, having recognized the symptoms of delirium tremens orders 5 ml of paraldehyde from a witnessing nurse. During the filming of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Graham Chapman developed delirium tremens due to the lack of alcohol on the set.