Alcohol withdrawal rates have skyrocketed amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new study suggests.
Researchers found a 34 percent increase in hospitalized patients with symptoms such as headaches, nausea, tremors and seizures due to non-use alcohol after a period of drinking.
In addition, rates from March to September 2020 were consistently higher compared to 2019.
The ChristianaCare team, one of the largest healthcare systems in the Meso-Atlantic region, believes that their study is the first to quantify the rate of alcohol withdrawal among hospitalized people.
They say the findings are a “bugle call” for other hospital systems to increase their screening for abstinence from alcohol use so that it can be treated.
A new study found that, throughout the pandemic, from March 25 to September 22, alcohol withdrawal rates increased 34% compared to the same period in 2019 (above)
“We designed the study to capture the big picture,” said lead author Ram Sharma, a psychiatry resident at ChristianaCare.
“We expected to see higher rates of alcohol withdrawal during the pandemic, and the data proved that we were right. Increased vigilance to identify alcohol abstinence with systematic screening of hospitalized patients will be critical, as peaks in future orders to stay at home force the pandemic. ‘
Alcohol abstinence is the name for the changes that occur when someone who has drunk too long to suddenly or significantly reduce their alcohol intake.
Among people who drink a lot for a long time, their brain chemistry adjusts because they are constantly exposed to the sedative or depressive effect of alcohol.
The brain produces more stimulating chemicals, such as serotonin or norepinephrine, to compensate for the effects of alcohol.
Therefore, when alcohol is suddenly withdrawn, the brain is over-stimulated.
Some of the milder symptoms that can occur include headaches, nausea and vomiting.
However, some patients experience more severe symptoms, such as tremors, hallucinations, convulsions and delirum tremens, which occurs when there is a dangerous change in a person’s breathing.
For the study, published in the JAMA Network Open, the team analyzed data from all patients hospitalized at two ChristianaCare hospitals in Delaware, Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital, between January 1, 2018 and September 22, 2020.
The researchers used a revised tool from the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol to identify hospitalized patients with alcohol withdrawal.
During the last two weeks of May, the rates of hospitalized patients with alcohol withdrawal were 84% compared to the same two weeks in 2019 (image file)
Patients were examined for three periods of time in 2020: before the order to stay at home (January 1 to March 24); during the request to stay at home (March 25 to May 31) and after the request to stay at home (June 1 to September 22).
They found 340 patients diagnosed with alcohol withdrawal before the order to stay at home, 231 during the order to stay at home and 507 after the order to stay at home.
The team then compared alcohol withdrawal rates in 2020 with the corresponding periods in 2018 and 2019.
The results showed that during the pandemic, from March 25 to September 22, Alcohol abstinence in hospitalized patients increased 34 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
The highest incidence occurred during the last two weeks of the order of stay at home, with an 84 percent higher rate of patients with alcohol withdrawal compared to the same two weeks in 2019.
Hospitalized patients can benefit from early intervention and treatment, including many fluids; medicines to control heart rate, blood pressure and breathing; and medicines called benzodiazepines to treat anxiety, panic attack, seizures, nausea and vomiting,
“Our findings are nationally relevant and serve as a bugle call to alert other hospital systems to the growing need for alcohol withdrawal screening and treatment and to refer patients for continued alcohol treatment,” said the senior author, Dr. Terry Horton, Head of Addiction Medicine.
“Our study makes use of ChristianaCare’s ongoing surveillance for alcohol withdrawal, which can occur when patients admitted to the hospital are without all sources of alcohol.”