"DELIRIUM TREMENS" FOLLOWING WITHDRAWAL OF ETHCHLORVINOL
HOWARD P. WOOD M.D.1, and
HARRISON F. FLIPPIN M.D.1
1 From The Lankenau Hospital and The Schools of Medicine, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
A mental syndrome indistinguishable from delirium tremens developed after withdrawal in a case of chronic ethchlorvinol intoxication. Our findings are compared with the 3 other published cases, which appear quite similar. As Engel and Romano have noted, this type of abstinence state, with cerebral overactivity, may well have more in common with the effects of hallucinogens than with the cerebral hypofunction of the usual delirium. Convulsive seizures are a regular feature of this syndrome, and anticonvulsants should be administered routinely in addition to the standard phenothiazine drugs.
