Background: Affecting approximately 5.9% of the US population, alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been established as a prevalent disease in this country (1). Through repeated hospital admissions for alcohol use disorder (including alcohol withdrawal syndromes), hospital costs have steadily risen to recent estimates of 7.6 billion dollars in 2017 (2). Without the establishment of outpatient [...]

Background: Affecting approximately 5.9% of the US population, alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been established as a prevalent disease in this country (1). Through repeated hospital admissions for alcohol use disorder (including alcohol withdrawal syndromes), hospital costs have steadily risen to recent estimates of 7.6 billion dollars in 2017 (2). Without the establishment of outpatient [...]

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) Is present in 10% of adults and its prevalence is increasing. When patients with AUD are admitted to the hospital, half develop alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), which can cause delirium, hallucinations, seizures, and even mortality if not treated appropriately. A fixed-dose phenobarbital strategy may be superior to the standard of [...]

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a pervasive disease affecting 28.6 million (11.3%) American adults in 2021.1 Medications for AUD (MAUD), including naltrexone, acamprosate, and disulfiram, are effective, yet less than 5% of these patients received treatment.1,2    Inpatient encounters of patients with AUD present a crucial opportunity to initiate MAUD, prompting this quality improvement [...]

Background: Between 5-30% of hospitalized patients screen positive for unhealthy alcohol use (UAU), and roughly 10-15% of patients have alcohol use disorder (AUD). Brief counseling and medications for AUD are shown to reduce alcohol consumption yet are underutilized in hospitals: over 90% of patients nationally are not screened and treated for UAU. Purpose: To increase [...]