Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 8 - Alcohol problems in the general hospital

  • from Part II - Common psychiatric problems across the general hospital
  • Edited by Geoffrey Lloyd, Priory Hospital, London, Elspeth Guthrie, University of Manchester
  • Book:
    Handbook of Liaison Psychiatry
    Published online:
    10 December 2009
    Print publication:
    24 May 2007, pp 149-179

  • Summary

    Liaison psychiatrists may have misgivings when surgeons and physicians refer patients with alcohol problems. Epidemiological overviews including meta-analyses have quantified the relationship of alcohol consumption to morbidity and mortality. Psychiatrists should be aware that alcohol dependence can obscure psychiatric diagnosis. In clinical practice, where a behaviour change is implicated, the diagnostic process is a first step in therapy. Liaison psychiatrists see many patients whose present physical symptoms have been attributed to depression or anxiety. Wernicke's syndrome is believed to be due to critical deprivation of thiamine in neurons in the mid-brain or thalamus. It often has a rapid onset following weeks of heavy drinking which have interfered with the absorption of thiamine from the intestine. It is possible that acamprosate or calcium homotaurinate acts to stabilize glutamate receptors left oversensitive in the newly abstinent alcohol-dependent patient.