Taipei City Hospital

      For ordinary people, it is hard to distinguish between alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence or alcohol-related diseases. Liang Huiwen, Chief Pharmacist of the Pharmacy Department at the Songde Branch of Taipei City Hospital, explains that alcohol abuse refers to drinking so much that one loses the ability to maintain self-control, only focusing on the drinking and ignoring undesirable consequences.

      Alcohol dependence is characterized by the patient becoming physically or mentally ill due to drinking, but still continuing to drink in an uncontrollable manner, and may have such symptoms as memory loss, sleep disorders and tremors after drinking, accompanied by an increasing tolerance of alcohol or the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms.

      Commonly seen alcohol-related diseases include: alcohol poisoning, alcohol withdrawal and mental disorders induced by alcohol. Liang says that alcohol poisoning refers to the patient having one or more of the following symptoms during or after continuous drinking: slurred speech, coordination disorder, unstable gait, nystagmus, attention or memory impairment, stupor or coma. The patient will also display obvious maladaptive behaviors or experience psychological changes, such as inappropriate sexual or aggressive behavior, mood swings, impaired judgment, and social or vocational function impairment.

      Alcohol withdrawal is suspected when the patient has two or more of the following symptoms within a few hours or days after he/she stops drinking or drinks less: autonomic nervous irritation, increased trembling of the hands, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, temporary delusion or illusion (in touch, sight or hearing), psychomotor agitation, anxiety and tonic-clonic seizures which can result in social and vocational function impairment.

      Liang emphasizes that planning an integrated alcohol withdrawal treatment for patients, encouraging them to participate in auxiliary self-help group therapy to find the reason for the recurrence of alcohol problems, and giving them psychological and behavioral therapy, together with the patients’ determination to cooperate, take medicine as required and keep away from alcohol, as well as the monitoring, encouragement and support of those providing care, will increase the chances of successfully quitting alcohol.