Alcoholic psychosis

Today alcoholic psychosis is a fairly common pathology among the population. The peculiarity of this disease is that recently there appeared an uncharacteristic predilection for its development in young people. Previously, alcoholic psychosis appeared, as a rule, after five years of active consumption of alcoholic beverages. At the present time, many are enough for one or two years.

It is not hard to guess that the causative factor in the development of this type of psychosis is chronic alcohol intoxication. Alcoholic psychosis develops as a result of disturbances in metabolic processes in organs and tissues (which is mainly caused by a violation of the activity of the liver against the background of alcohol intoxication).

How is alcoholic psychosis manifested?

Symptoms of this disease are mainly represented by white fever (or delirium). White fever, as a rule, develops against the background of withdrawal syndrome, that is, at a time when after a long "binge" it's time to stop drinking alcohol, for one reason or another.

White fever (or in the people - "squirrel") begins with a general vegetative symptomatology: tremor (trembling) of limbs, sweating and fussiness. In the future, insomnia develops. There are visual hallucinations and paranoid nonsense (when the patient logically tries to explain his vision). Hallucinations are mainly visual, most often small animals and insects. Often, a patient with alcoholic psychosis claims to see snakes, aliens, devils, dead relatives. It is possible to develop not only visual, but also tactile, auditory and olfactory hallucinations.

The movements and facial expressions of patients correspond to the hallucinations they see. The patient may be passive or agitated (a person hides, defends and attacks). A characteristic feature of white fever is the periodic easing of symptoms, i.e., so-called "light" gaps are observed. Manifestations of hallucinations and delirium intensifies in the evening and night.

Alcoholic psychosis, the treatment of which was not carried out, may last for one or two weeks, as a result, the development of a complication - alcoholic encephalopathy - is possible. However, more often after a prolonged deep sleep, there is an independent recovery.

The therapeutic tactics of the doctor is directed solely at the pathogenesis of alcoholic psychosis. The patients are actively undergoing infusion therapy (consisting of a solution of glucose with a small alcohol content) - this helps to stop the developing withdrawal syndrome and weaken the excitation of the autonomic nervous system. In addition, psychotropic drugs are prescribed to suppress hallucinations and delusions of the patient. Among the group of psychotropic drugs the most popular were haloperidol, tizercin and trifazin. Plus, patients are prescribed vitamins B and nootropics (as a means of preventing alcoholic encephalopathy).

As a preventive measure of alcoholic psychosis, chronic forms of alcoholism are treated.

Thus, alcoholic psychosis is a disease not only medical, but also social, because it is social factors in the response to the development of alcoholism (including chronic). The social nature of this disease leads to the fact that the treatment is carried out in a complex way - by the forces of medical workers (with the help of various pharmaceutical preparations) and by the forces of psychologists and valeologists, whose work consists in changing the person's ideas about this world, its place and significance. The latter, in addition, in response to the formation in the final analysis of a healthy lifestyle and behavior in society.