CIWA You Know About Adjunctive Therapies for Alcohol Withdrawal
The purpose of this activity is to equip pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with information to help determine how to provide safe and effective adjunctive therapy options for the patients with AWS. Benzodiazepine agents have been used as the standard of care for the prophylaxis and treatment of all phases of AWS. While most patients suffering from AWS will respond to benzodiazepines, there is a subgroup of patients with severe AWS who are refractory and require additional therapies. Additionally, benzodiazepines have drawbacks including significant cognitive and neurological side effects. Recent literature has shown that using a multimodal approach to managing benzodiazepine-refractory patients appears beneficial in improving symptoms. This presentation reviews several clinical trials evaluating the use of adjunctive therapies for patients with AWS. Understanding the place for adjunctive therapies in the management of patients with AWS will allow pharmacists to provide evidence-based recommendations to the medical team.
Target Audience
- Pharmacists
- Pharmacy technicians
Learning Objectives
Pharmacist learning objectives
- Differentiate between the stages of acute alcohol withdrawal
- Discuss the severity of alcohol withdrawal and its potential complications
- Analyze the recent literature evaluating the use of adjunctive therapies for alcohol withdrawal
- Design an appropriate drug regimen for the treatment of refractory alcohol withdrawal based on patient specific factors
Pharmacy technician learning objectives
- Identify medications used for the treatment of alcohol withdrawals on a patient’s medication list
- Recognize common dosing instructions for medications used for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal
Additional Information
Available Credit
- 1.00 ACPE Pharmacist
- 1.00 ACPE Pharmacy Technician