PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stephen Stewart
AU  - Sharon Swain
TI  - Assessment and management of alcohol dependence and withdrawal in the acute hospital: concise guidance
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.12-3-266
DP  - 2012 Jun 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 266--271
VI  - 12
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/12/3/266.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/12/3/266.full
SO  - Clin Med2012 Jun 01; 12
AB  - Alcohol dependence is common among patients attending acute hospitals. It can be the major reason for attendance or a significant cofactor. Assessment of these patients in the acute setting can be challenging owing to the multidisciplinary approach required. Doctors in acute hospitals are often inexperienced in managing dependence, a mental health problem. They might focus on the physical harms or the withdrawal, a consequence of the dependence. For this reason, assessment of dependence and prevention and management of acute alcohol withdrawal are often suboptimal. There is little existing guidance on how to manage this patient population, especially in non-specialist settings. With recently published National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on the management of dependence and withdrawal, now is the perfect time to produce concise guidelines in the hope that a more succinct suite of guidance can reach a larger audience.