Grim rise of pandemic alcoholism: Two hospitals saw 34% increase in patients suffering from alcohol withdrawals when admitted for other conditions during the COVID-19 crisis
A new study looked at patients suffering from alcohol withdrawal at two Delaware hospitals between January 1, 2018 and September 22, 2020
Over the course of the pandemic, from March 25 to September 22, alcohol withdrawal rates increased by 34% compared to the same time period in 2019
During the last two weeks of May, rates were 84% in comparison with the same two weeks in 2019
Researchers say the findings are a clarion call for other hospital systems to ramp up their screening for alcohol withdrawal so it can be treated
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Lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with more cases of alcohol withdrawal, according to a single-center study of hospitalized patients.
Compared with 2019, rates of alcohol withdrawal increased by nearly 34% during March-September 2020 (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.34, 95% CI 1.22-1.48), reported Ram Sharma, MD, of Christiana Care in Newark, Delaware, and colleagues.
The rate of alcohol withdrawal was consistently higher in 2020 compared with both 2019 and the average of 2018 and 2019, although the difference was larger in the period after the stay-at-home order. The largest IRR in 2020 compared with 2019 (IRR 1.84, 95% CI 1.30-2.60) occurred in the last 2 weeks of the stay-at-home order, they noted in a research letter published in
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During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a 34% increase in alcohol withdrawal (AW) rates among hospitalized patients at ChristianaCare, according to a research letter published today in the
The study is believed to be the first to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol withdrawal among hospitalized patients.
The retrospective study conducted at ChristianaCare, one of the largest health systems in the mid-Atlantic region, found that the rate of alcohol withdrawal in hospitalized patients was consistently higher in 2020 compared to both 2019 and the average of 2019 and 2018. Our findings are relevant nationally and serve as a clarion call to alert other hospital systems to the increased need to screen for and treat alcohol use withdrawal, and to refer patients for ongoing alcohol treatment, said Terry Horton, M.D., ChristianaCare s chief of Addiction Medicine and senior author on the research letter.