Prevention and therapy of delirium tremens with tiapride and chlordesmethyldiazepam
Cazzato, G.; Gioseffi, M.; Torre, P.; Coppola, N.
Rivista di Neurologia 52(6): 331-342
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-6344 PMID: 6130594 Document Number: 195118
Forty alcohol abusers (with a history of long-time alcohol addiction and mean daily use over 360 grams of alcohol) were treated with tiapride or chlordesmethyldiazepam when stopped their overdrinking. The aim of such pharmacological treatment was both a valuation of effectiveness towards ten target-symptoms and the attempt to avoid the development of a withdrawal syndrome-or, at least, to shorten its course. Chlordesmethyldiazepam resulted to be on the whole more effective than tiapride in dominating all most dramatic symptoms of Delirium Tremens and in avoiding--in a significantly higher number of patients--the onset of a DT syndrome in all its typical features. Moreover, CDDz appeared as a manageable drug and free from important side-effects, and could control symptoms without need of further therapies.