Lang SonA 43-year-old man was hospitalized with delirium, hallucinations, and seizures. The doctor diagnosed mental disorder due to alcohol addiction.
The patient’s family said that the patient had been an alcoholic for more than ten years, many times he only drank alcohol but did not eat or sleep. The patient was hospitalized twice due to mental disorders. When he got home, he continued to drink, so his health deteriorated, his mood changed, he was irritable and refused to work. This time, he drank alcohol continuously, did not eat, then had delirium, seizures, hallucinations, and was hospitalized in the emergency room for the third time.
On April 17, Doctor Trinh Thi Viet Ha, Deputy Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Lang Son Provincial General Hospital, said that the patient had a mental disorder due to alcohol abuse and was hospitalized for treatment.
According to Dr. Ha, in the first three months of the year, the unit received nearly 100 patients with mental disorders caused by alcohol abuse. Symptoms of the disease include delirium, irritability, inability to control emotions, screaming, cursing, anxiety, and panic. Many people hallucinate, hit people, and injure themselves and those around them.
“This is a serious and most common complication in people who abuse alcohol,” the doctor said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), alcohol is the direct cause of more than 30 non-communicable diseases and nearly 200 other diseases, ranking third among the causes of premature death and disability worldwide. world. On average, it takes about an hour for the body to break down one unit of alcohol. This time may be earlier or later depending on the age, weight… of the drinker. Alcohol affects all parts of the body, most severely the brain and central nervous system, the liver, kidneys, heart, stomach… The stomach quickly absorbs 20% of alcohol, then the small intestine and to the brain.
Among them, alcohol-induced mental disorder is a consequence of long-term alcohol abuse, causing direct damage to the brain and internal organs, causing metabolic disorders in the body, making the disease complicated. Complicated and difficult to treat.
For treatment, doctors must closely monitor the progression and manifestations of the disease, combine mental encouragement and psychological support for the patient and family members. However, many patients relapse to alcohol use after treatment. Therefore, the patient himself needs to have the strength and determination to give up alcohol, and at the same time comply with the doctor’s treatment regimen. The family needs to encourage the patient to give up the habit of drinking alcohol.
When a patient shows signs of mental disorder due to alcohol, the family needs to immediately take them to a medical facility for proper treatment. They should not self-treat at home.
In case you need to drink alcohol, you should not drink more than two units of alcohol/day for men and one unit of alcohol/day for women; Should not drink more than 5 days/week. Specifically, men should not drink more than 1-1.5 bottles or cans of beer/day; two glasses of beer/day, no more than two glasses of wine/day, two glasses of wine (40 degrees)/day. Women drink half the amount of men.