• Der Nervenarzt · May 2019

    [Course and complications of GHB detoxification treatment: a 1-year case series].

    • Peter Neu.
    • Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin - Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Heinz-Galinksi-Str. 1, 13347, Berlin, Deutschland. peter.neu@jkb-online.de.
    • Nervenarzt. 2019 May 1; 90 (5): 509-515.

    BackgroundGamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and its precursors have gained popularity over the last decade as a drug in the party and club scene; however, the clinical knowledge of these substances is low. In the literature there have been case reports of severe dependence and withdrawal but there is a lack of systematic knowledge about the clinical course and complications of detoxification treatment.ObjectiveThe aim of this article is to evaluate the prevalence, treatment course, complications and compliance of GHB patients seeking inpatient qualified detoxification treatment (QDT).MethodsA retrospective evaluation of the hospital charts of all patients admitted to this clinic in 2017 for QDT of GHB. The Jewish Hospital in Berlin (Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin) provides specialized inpatient units for addictive diseases and a general intensive care unit. The control population came from a prospective study of all patients with addictive diseases who were treated in the same hospital in 2012.ResultsIn 2017 a total of 18 patients with GHB addiction were treated in this hospital. This corresponds to a 1‑year prevalence of 2.28% of all addictive diseases in this year. During detoxification treatment 52% of the GHB patients had to be temporarily transferred to the intensive care unit, 5% had to be temporarily mechanically ventilated and 26% suffered from withdrawal delirium. Of the patients 42% terminated treatment prematurely against medical advice.ConclusionWithdrawal treatment from GHB is a severe and potentially dangerous condition, the prevalence of complications was higher than for most other drugs and the rate of intensive care and withdrawal delirium was very high. Further studies are urgently needed with the aim of reducing the complication rates of GHB withdrawal and enhancing therapy adherence.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…