Delirium Tremens and Dreaming
RAMON GREENBERG M.D.1, and
CHESTER PEARLMAN M.D.2
1 Staff Psychiatrist, Veterans Administration Hospital, Boston, Mass. 02130, and Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine
2 Resident in psychiatry, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Mass.
A study of patients receiving alcohol and patients withdrawn from alcohol showed that increasing levels of alcoholism suppressed dreaming. Withdrawal led consistently to an increase in Stage I-REM sleep, with 100 percent Stage I being found just before development of delirium tremens. A rationale for treatment based on these findings is proposed.
