Four criteria identify alcohol dependence, and more than 17 million Americans meet these criteria, according to the National Institutes of Health, or NIH--a strong need to drink; the inability to quit drinking once you've begun; withdrawal symptoms occurring when you stop drinking; and needing more amounts of alcohol to achieve the same level of high. Alcoholism is a chronic disease that can be treated but not cured.
Intake
Once you check into an alcohol detox facility, you will be interviewed by an addiction specialist to determine your level of dependence. People dependent on alcohol experience withdrawal symptoms once they stop drinking. The most common symptoms, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, or AAFP, are restlessness, sweating, anxiety, depression, headaches, possible seizures, coma and death.
Establish Treatment Plan
The purpose of an intake interview is to determine your treatment plan. Depending on how much you drink and how long you have been drinking, it's likely you'll need to take certain medications to help reduce and prevent withdrawal symptoms. While some medications help to make you feel more comfortable while detoxing, others prevent dangerous side effects of the sudden shock to your system, including seizures and delirium tremens, or DTs.
Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome
Nearly 50 percent of people who withdraw from alcohol, according to a study by Michael James Burns, M.D., department of emergency medicine at University of California Irvine School of Medicine, "develop any significant withdrawal symptoms that require pharmacological treatment upon cessation of alcohol intake."
Three levels of withdrawal symptom treatment are outlined by the AAFP. On a fixed-scheduled plan, patients are given medication every few hours, to reduce and prevent symptoms. A symptom-triggered plan provides the patient with medication when symptoms occur. The lowest level of symptom management is vital-sign monitoring. All levels of treatment provide vital-sign monitoring around the clock, but this last level is for patients who only suffer from mild to moderate withdrawal symptoms.
Medications
Benzodiazepines, reports the AAFP, are typically given to patients withdrawing from alcohol. This includes medications like Ativan and Valium. Benzos work like sedatives. They reduce anxiety, help curb craving, can cause drowsiness and may precipitate seizures. A 2005 article published in the journal, "Critical Care Nurse," by Mary G. McKinley, R.N., reports that benzos are the only drugs that have been proved in placebo-controlled trials to reduce alcohol dependence withdrawal symptoms and alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
