Drug Medical Information

POISONING: ALCOHOLISM

Five to fifty per cent of fatal automobile accidents are due to alcoholism, and twenty-five per cent of psychiatric patients have some alcoholic background.
About one half of a drink of alcohol is absorbed in the first fifteen minutes and practically all that is taken is absorbed in three hours. The alcohol is picked up from the stomach and bowel and carried by the blood to all portions of the body. Most of the alcohol is oxidized to carbon dioxide and water. Each gram of alcohol burned yields seven calories.
The chief effects of alcohol are on the nervous system. The drug is primarily depressant, the apparent stimulation being due to its removal of inhibitions. The symptoms depend on the amount of alcohol consumed. Small or moderate amounts produce a state of "euphoria," or well-being, with warmth and a feeling of lightness. Judgment and coordination are damaged, but the person feels superior and is thereby all the more troublesome. With large doses of alcohol speech becomes thickened, vision is blurred, the sensations are lost in arms and legs. Some drunks are happy and others are sad. Eventually all inhibitions are lost and the intoxicated person becomes over-talkative, excited, abusive, or sullen. Finally there may be tremors, or convulsions or unconsciousness. Conditions may become so severe as to cause death.
When the alcoholic "comes to" he is dull, has a headache, cannot remember what happened, and may be quite sick with the hangover. It doesn't sound worthwhile - and it isn't.
Most people get over an episode of acute alcoholic intoxication, but severe manifestations may require sustaining of the heart and breathing by artificial respiration and the prescribing of necessary drugs. Doctors give thiamin, because of associated deficiencies.
The results of chronic alcoholism are physical deterioration, mental disintegration and, ultimately, death. The border that separates the social drinker from the chronic alcoholic is not easily defined. Most chronic alcoholics drink to escape mental stresses and unsolved social adjustments. They need the help of psychiatrists - but they need treatment also to overcome the nutritional and other physical disturbances that accompany chronic alcoholism.
Persistent drinkers eventually lose their appetite and have stomach troubles, with nausea and vomiting. Ordinary foods do not appeal, and everything has to be highly spiced. The alcohol damages the walls of the stomach and bowels and interferes with absorption of vitamins. Beer drinkers may take such large quantities as to distend the stomach and bowel.
The picture of a chronic drinker is generally well known. The abdomen is bloated, the eyes and skin reddened with dilated blood vessels. The nose becomes bulbous and as red as a tomato. The injury to the nervous system produces shaky hands and an indecisive balance and gait. Because of the lack of thiamin, inflammations of the nerves occur. The emotions hang on a hair trigger. Rage follows giggling and laughter, remorse succeeds a period of exuberance. Judgment disappears, and the alcoholic cannot make up his mind to do even things that are important. Finally deterioration becomes complete, and delirium tremens may require hospitalization and emergency care.
Chronic alcoholics are now treated by combined physical and mental treatment. Psychiatrists try to find the underlying stresses. Alcoholics Anonymous uses the values of group action to get alcoholics to help each other. Antabuse is a new drug which makes drinking so unpleasant as to condition the alcoholic against drinking.
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