Because alcohol is highly addictive to human body, more than half of the adults in society often drink alcohol, and 30% ~ 35% of these drinkers will become lifelong alcoholics. Alcoholism has become an increasingly serious social problem. Although for most drinkers, proper dosage and frequency of drinking will only affect their physical and mental health, but will not affect their daily behavior ability. However, excessive drinking can lead to serious health problems, interpersonal breakdown, violence, suicide and car accidents.
After alcohol enters the human body, it is mainly absorbed into the blood in the small intestine and partially absorbed from the stomach. Because alcohol is absorbed faster than excreted, it will accumulate in the blood. On an empty stomach, after drinking for 30 ~ 90 minutes, the alcohol concentration in the blood will reach its peak. 5% ~ 10% alcohol is directly excreted from urine, sweat and breath without metabolism, and the rest is metabolized in the liver, and ethanol is converted into acetaldehyde by dehydrogenase. Acetaldehyde will eventually combine with CO2 to generate water, and alcohol dehydrogenase in gastric mucosa will also participate in some metabolism.
Intake of alcohol after drinking will directly combine with γ -aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor in central nervous system, leading to the inhibition of central nervous system function. At the same time, alcohol can also directly act on the heart, liver and thyroid tissue.
Because alcohol is easily tolerated in the human body, at the same dose, it is not susceptible to the euphoria caused by the inhibition of the central nervous system, so the more you drink, the more you drink. The reason of alcohol tolerance is the adaptive change of central nerve cells. In this way, long-term heavy drinking will lead to drunkenness and organ damage, so many alcoholics eventually die of respiratory failure caused by excessive drinking.
Alcoholics can also suffer from ketoacidosis, especially when drinking heavily during carnival time. In addition, alcohol addicts will cross-tolerate other central nervous tranquilizers, which will aggravate drug abuse and overuse.
Excessive drinking can lead to liver damage, such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis, and the results vary with the dosage and time of drinking. Patients with severe liver disease suffer from coagulation dysfunction due to the decreased function of synthesizing coagulation factors in the liver, which increases the risk of traumatic bleeding and gastrointestinal bleeding. Because of the damage of alcohol to digestive organs, drinkers will also have digestive diseases such as gastritis and pancreatitis. Alcohol can also attack the cardiovascular system and autonomic nervous system, causing cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia, as well as hypertension and peripheral neuropathy.
Because of the inhibition of alcohol on the central nervous system and the damage to nerve cells, drinkers will also have irreversible brain damage, including Wernicke encephalopathy, korsakov's psychosis, Marcea's Fava-Bigger disease, alcoholic dementia and so on.
Alcohol is a first-class carcinogen, which will destroy cell DNA, so drinking alcohol will increase the incidence of systemic cancer.
Children's drinking will also significantly increase the risk of hypoglycemia death, because alcohol will hinder glycogen synthesis, and children's glycogen storage is small and will soon be exhausted. Under the condition of the same weight, women's tolerance to alcohol is weaker than that of men, because the first-pass effect of alcohol metabolism in women's stomach is less, and drinking alcohol during pregnancy will increase the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome. Male drinkers, on the other hand, suffer from decreased sexual function and feminization due to the effect of alcohol, such as lack of male appearance and temperament, testicular atrophy and breast development.
Alcohol-tolerant alcoholics depend heavily on alcohol, so the process of abstinence will have more serious consequences.
For alcohol addicts, once they stop drinking, there will be withdrawal reaction, and mild withdrawal symptoms include trembling, weakness, headache, sweating, hyperreflexia and gastrointestinal reaction. These withdrawal symptoms usually appear about 6 hours after abstinence. Some abstainers will have alcoholic epilepsy or specific paroxysmal muscle spasm, and alcohol hallucinations will occur within 12 ~ 24 hours after abstinence. Hallucinatory symptoms usually include auditory hallucinations. Alcohol hallucinations are similar to schizophrenia, although patients may not have mental disorders and have no typical history of schizophrenia.
Delirium tremens usually occurs within 48 to 72 hours after abstinence, accompanied by anxiety, confusion, sleep disorder, obvious sweating and severe depression. It is common to cause anxiety, fear and even brief hallucinations. At this stage, the autonomic nervous system of abstainers is unstable, which is characterized by sweating, rapid pulse, elevated body temperature, and the symptoms of delirium begin to get worse. Mild delirium is usually accompanied by obvious sweating. 100? Pulse per minute 120, temperature 37.2 to 37.8 degrees Celsius.
When the abstainer's pulse is greater than 120 beats/min and his body temperature is higher than 37.8℃, the risk of death will increase. At this time, is it necessary for abstainers to give large doses of benzodiazepines? The dosage of intravenous drugs is not capped, so it is best to stay in ICU ward. Intravenous injection of diazepam 5 ~ 10 mg or lorazepam 10 ~ 2 mg every10 minute can control delirium symptoms. Some patients may need hundreds of milligrams of benzodiazepines in the first few hours of treatment. Drugs. P-benzodiazepine? Invalid patients can choose phenobarbital 120 ~ 240 mg, intravenous injection every 20 minutes. Patients with severe drug resistance can continue to inhale lorazepam, diazepam, midazolam or propofol through a ventilator, maintain venous volume through intravenous rehydration, and supplement large doses of thiamine, vitamin B and vitamin C.
After detoxification, it is best for drinkers to join a mutual aid association or seek the help of a psychological counselor to quit drinking.