The Irish are amongst the highest consumers of alcohol in Europe. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of daily outpatient alcohol detoxification in an Irish Public Psychiatric Hospital.

The outpatient records of patients presenting to St Brendan's Hospital in one year with symptoms of Alcohol Dependency Syndrome (ADS) and commencing daily outpatient detoxification were examined retrospectively for parameters relevant to the aim of the study.

Forty patients underwent outpatient alcohol detoxification in one year and complete records were available for 32 patients. 20 patients had fixed addresses in the hospital catchments areas, 8 patients had no fixed addresses and the remaining 4 patients had addresses outside the catchments areas. 7 patients, all known to sector services, presented with a co-morbid psychiatric condition. For the detoxification, 28 patients attended on the second day whilst 22 patients attended their third day's appointment. Only 17 patients completed the outpatient detoxification. 13 patients received at least two outpatient detoxifications during the year; of whom 7 patients received their second detoxification within two months of the first one. The record of 20 patients showed that they had received advice regarding self-referral to counselling services.

A high proportion of patients (47%) presenting with symptoms of ADS did not complete daily outpatient detoxifications. A high proportion of all patients (40.6%) also underwent multiple outpatient detoxifications during the year. It is possible that the separation between alcohol detoxification and alcohol counselling services in Ireland contributed to these disappointing results.