Alcohol withdrawal

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Alcohol withdrawal

Symptoms:

Mild-to-moderate psychological symptoms:

Jumpiness or nervousness
Shakiness
Anxiety
Irritability or easy excitability
Rapid emotional changes
Depression
Fatigue
Difficulty thinking clearly
Bad dreams

Mild-to-moderate physical symptoms:

Headache -- general, pulsating
Sweating -- especially the palms of the hands or the face
Nausea and vomiting
Loss of appetite
Insomnia (sleeping difficulty)
Pallor
Rapid heart rate
Eye pupils enlarged(dilated pupils)
Clammy skin
Tremor of the hands
Involuntary, abnormal movements of the eyelids

Severe symptoms:

Delirium tremens -- a state of confusion and visual hallucinations
Agitation
Fever
Convulsions
Black outs -- when the person forgets what happened during the drinking episode

Signs and tests:

The health care provider will check for:

Rapid heartbeat (tachycardia)
Rapid breathing (tachypnea)
Elevated temperature
Abnormal eye movements
Shaky hands
General body shaking
Abnormal heart rhythms
Internal bleeding
Liver failure
Dehydration

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

Review Date: 6/3/2005
Reviewed By: Thomas A. Owens, M.D., Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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