Alcohol consumption rates skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study suggests.
Researchers found a 34 percent increase in patients hospitalized with symptoms such as headaches, nausea, tremors, and seizures from not taking. alcohol after a period of heavy drinking.
In addition, from March to September in 2020, rates were consistently higher compared to 2019.
The team at ChristianaCare, one of the largest mid-Atlantic health systems, believes its study is the first to quantify the alcohol withdrawal rate among people in the hospital.
They say the findings are a “ clearance call ” for other hospital systems to step up their alcohol withdrawal screening so it can be treated.
A new study found that over the course of the pandemic, from March 25 to September 22, alcohol withdrawal rates increased by 34% compared to the same period in 2019 (above)
“We designed the study to capture the big picture,” said lead author Ram Sharma, a psychiatric resident of ChristianaCare.
‘We expected more alcohol withdrawals during the pandemic, and the data indicated that we were right. Increased vigilance to identify alcohol withdrawal with systematic screening of hospitalized patients will be critical as peaks in the pandemic compel future home confirmations. ‘
Alcohol withdrawal is the name for the changes that occur when someone who has been drinking heavily for a long time suddenly stops or significantly reduces alcohol consumption.
In people who drink heavily for long periods of time, their brain chemistry adjusts because it is constantly exposed to the sedative or suppressive effect of alcohol.
The brain produces more stimulant chemicals, such as serotonin or norepinephrine, to offset the effects of alcohol.
Therefore, when alcohol is suddenly withdrawn, the brain becomes overstimulated.
Some of the milder symptoms that can be experienced include headache, nausea, and vomiting.
However, some patients experience more serious symptoms such as tremors, hallucinations, seizures, and delirum tremens, and that’s when there is a dangerous shift in a person’s breathing.
For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, the team looked at data from all patients hospitalized at two of Delaware’s ChristianaCare hospitals, Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital, between January 1, 2018 and September 22, 2020.
Researchers used a revised Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol tool to identify patients with hospital alcohol withdrawal.
During the last two weeks of May, the percentage of hospitalized alcohol withdrawal patients was 84% compared to the same two weeks in 2019 (file image)
Patients were examined for three periods in 2020: before the home recruitment assignment (January 1 to March 24); during the stay-at-home order (March 25 to May 31) and after the stay-at-home order (June 1 to September 22).
They found a diagnosis of withdrawal symptoms in 340 patients before the stay-at-home order, 231 during the stay-at-home order and 507 after the stay-at-home order.
The team then compared the number of alcohol withdrawals in 2020 with corresponding periods in 2018 and 2019.
The results showed that during the pandemic, from March 25 to September 22, Alcohol withdrawal in hospitalized patients increased by 34 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
The greatest incidence occurred during the last two weeks of the stay-at-home order, with an 84 percent higher percentage of alcohol withdrawal patients compared to the same two weeks in 2019.
Hospitalized patients may benefit from early intervention and treatment, including plenty of fluids; medications to control heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing; and medicines called benzodiazepines to treat anxiety, panic attacks, seizures, nausea and vomiting,
“Our findings are nationally relevant and serve as a clarification call to alert other hospital systems to the increased need to screen for alcohol withdrawal and refer patients for ongoing alcohol treatment,” said senior author Dr. Terry Horton, head of ChristianaCare. Addiction Medicine.
“Our study leverages ChristianaCare’s ongoing monitoring of alcohol withdrawal, which can occur when hospitalized patients are cut off from all sources of alcohol.”