THE COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT OF DELIRIUM TREMENS

Abstract

The fact that delirium tremens may result fatally is frequently overlooked by the practicing physician. In a survey of the available literature as far back as 1910, one finds that the statistics concerned with delirium tremens show a considerable mortality, the peak being reached in one reputable clinic which reported 37 per cent.¹Recently the death rate has diminished considerably, undoubtedly because of more intelligent treatment of these cases, so that the mean mortality in the past ten years has been approximately 10 to 12 per cent. It is because rational management of this disease apparently has produced favorable results generally and in the hope of stimulating an effort to bring about a further reduction in the death rate that this report is being made. Because of the traditional negligence with which medical statistics are usually compiled, it is not possible to evaluate accurately a comparison between the results