Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome
Definition
Alcohol withdrawal refers to symptoms that may occur when a person who has been drinking too much alcohol every day suddenly stops drinking alcohol.
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
- 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
- Delirium tremens -- a state of confusion and visual hallucinations
- Agitation
- Fever
- Convulsions
- Black outs -- when the person forgets what happened during the drinking episode
