The body’s vital signs such as heart rate or blood pressure can change dramatically or unpredictably, creating a risk of heart attack, stroke, or death. Benzodiazepinesare often the first treatment doctors suggest for alcohol withdrawal. Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal can range from mild to serious and can sometimes be life-threatening. If you drink only once in a while, you’re unlikely to have withdrawal symptoms.
Risk Factors for Severe Alcohol Withdrawal
It manifests through a range of physical and mental symptoms, such as anxiety, shakiness, vomiting, and even seizures 1. Understanding this syndrome and its prevalence is crucial for effectively managing and treating individuals experiencing alcohol withdrawal. During alcohol withdrawal, you’ll likely experience both tension-type headaches with band-like pressure and throbbing migraine-like episodes that include sensitivity to light and sound. The absence of alcohol causes neural pathway hyperactivity that intensifies these headache symptoms. While acute withdrawal headaches typically last a few days to a week, some people face prolonged episodes during Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) that can persist for months in cyclical patterns. Maintaining adequate vitamin and mineral intake through a balanced diet helps combat withdrawal symptoms.
Symptoms such as sleep changes, rapid changes in mood, and fatigue may last for months. People who continue to drink a lot may develop health problems such as liver, heart, and nervous system disease. Figure 2 illustrates how to proceed in the clinical setting of suspected AWS to confirm the diagnosis and to start sufficient therapy. Heavy alcohol use also depletes the body of vital electrolytes and vitamins, such as folate, magnesium, and thiamine.
Which 12 Symptoms Are Considered Common in Alcohol Withdrawal?
Most people will recover after these symptoms clear up, which can take up to 7 days. Stimulant alcohol withdrawal syndrome symptoms (eg, cocaine, amphetamine) withdrawal, or wash-out syndrome, resembles severe depressive disorder. Manifestations include dysphoria, excessive sleep, hunger, and severe psychomotor retardation, whereas vital functions are well preserved. Go to the emergency room or call 911 or the local emergency number if seizures, fever, severe confusion, hallucinations, or irregular heartbeats occur.
Phenobarbital has a greater therapeutic index than do benzodiazepines
Your doctor’s treatment goal is helping you stop drinking as quickly and safely as possible. Contact your state’s mental health/substance use agency for more guidance on how to afford rehab. You may reach a point where you start drinking again just to relieve your symptoms.
- Healthcare professionals consider other factors, such as medical history, physical examination, and individual patient circumstances, to make a well-informed diagnosis and develop a tailored treatment plan.
- This is so your doctor can monitor your condition and manage any complications.
- Alternative codes to consider when ruling out similar conditions to the primary diagnosis.
- These shakes commonly occur with neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain.
- Over time, alcohol alters the brain by downregulating GABA receptors and upregulating glutamate receptors to maintain neural equilibrium.
- Besides a psychiatrist, other healthcare professionals that should be involved include the internist, neurologist, pain specialist, intensivist, mental health nurse, pharmacist, and sometimes a cardiologist.
Stages of Alcohol Withdrawal Explained: Symptoms, Timeline, & Risk Factors
The withdrawal timeline and severity depend on your overall consumption patterns. Maintain hydration by sipping water throughout the day and consider oral rehydration solutions to restore electrolyte balance. Include probiotic-rich foods to support gut health, and supplement with potassium and magnesium to help relax stomach muscles.
If you need help finding a primary care doctor, then check out our FindCare tool here. Read on to learn about the symptoms of AWS, as well as how it can be treated or prevented. It slows down your brain function and changes the way your nerves send messages back and forth. Our Find a Provider tool makes it easy to search Cleveland Clinic’s trusted network.
Substances
When compared to the withdrawal syndrome of GABA agonists, such as alcohol and benzodiazepine, the opiate withdrawal response is usually mild and less severe. Although the experience is exceptionally distressing for the patient, it is not life-threatening when drug discontinuation occurs naturally. The withdrawal usually resembles a flu-like illness characterized by yawning, sneezing, rhinorrhea, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and dilated pupils. Depending on the half-life of the drug, the symptoms may last for 3 to 10 days.
Who is at Risk of Acute Withdrawal?
General supportive care should correct fluid depletion, hypoglycemia and electrolytes disturbances, and should include hydration and vitamin supplementation. In particular, thiamine supplementation and B-complex vitamins (including folates) are essential for the prevention of Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) 47. Thiamine can be given routinely in these patients given the absence of significant adverse effects or contraindications 46.
Understanding the timeline of alcohol withdrawal headaches helps you anticipate and prepare for each recovery phase. The duration variability Oxford House of headaches typically follows a predictable pattern, though individual experiences may differ greatly based on drinking history and overall health status. Due to heightened security measures, accessing medical support websites may occasionally be restricted, requiring alternate reliable resources for withdrawal information. Intended to aid clinicians in their clinical decision making and management of patients experiencing alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
