Podcast 765: Phenobarbital for Alcohol Withdrawal

<p><strong>Contributor: Aaron Lessen, MD</strong></p> <p><strong>Educational Pearls:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Retrospective cohort study looked at return rate of discharged patients after receiving either phenobarbital or benzodiazepines or both in the ED for treatment of alcohol withdrawal</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patients who received benzodiazepines had a 25% chance of returning in 3 days versus a 10% chance of returning in 3 days for those who received phenobarbital</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">13% of patients returned in 3 days after receiving both phenobarbital and benzodiazepines</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Phenobarbital may make it less likely for patients to come back to the ED after receiving treatment for alcohol withdrawal</span></li> </ul> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lebin JA, Mudan A, Murphy CE 4th, Wang RC, Smollin CG. Return Encounters in Emergency Department Patients Treated with Phenobarbital Versus Benzodiazepines for Alcohol Withdrawal. J Med Toxicol. 2022;18(1):4-10. doi:10.1007/s13181-021-00863-2</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Summarized by John Spartz, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD</span></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Emergency Medical Minute is excited to announce that we are now offering</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">AMA PRA Category 1 credits™</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">via online course modules. To access these and for more information, visit our website at</span> <a href= "https://emergencymedicalminute.org/cme-courses/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">https://emergencymedicalminute.org/cme-courses/</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and create an account. </span></p> <p><a href= "https://www.paypal.