Multiple admissions for alcohol withdrawal.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to identify risk factors for multiple admissions for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in patients admitted to a general medicine service.


METHODS
A retrospective study was performed examining records of patients admitted for AWS between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008 to an academic tertiary referral hospital. Patients with a single admission were compared to patients with multiple admissions with respect to demographic and clinical variables.


RESULTS
Three hundred and twenty-two patients accounted for 788 admissions. Of the 322 patients, 142 (44%) had multiple admissions. Compared to patients with a single admission, patients with multiple admissions were more likely to have a high school education or less (p=0.0071), a higher Charlson comorbidity index score (p=0.0010), a positive urine drug screen for non-alcohol drug (p=0.0002), psychiatric comorbidity (p=0.0303) and a higher CIWA-Ar maximum total score (p<0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
In patients with AWS, we identified demographic and clinical variables associated with multiple admissions to a general medicine service. Our results indicate areas for a targeted multidisciplinary and multispecialty approach at initial intervention, which is especially important given the high rates of recidivism in this patient population.
Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
Scott A
SA
Larson
M Caroline
MC
Burton
Deanne T
DT
Kashiwagi
Zachary P
ZP
Hugo
Stephen S
SS
Cha
Maria I
MI
Lapid
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011594:Psychometrics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*