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The Role of Thiamine Deficiency in the Aetiology of the Hallucinatory States Complicating Alcoholism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. E. Blackstock ,
D. H. Gath ,
B. C. Gray  and
G. Higgins
E. E. Blackstock
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford
D. H. Gath
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford
B. C. Gray
Affiliation:
Nuffield Department of Clinical Biochemistry, United Oxford Hospitals
G. Higgins
Affiliation:
Nuffield Department of Clinical Biochemistry, United Oxford Hospitals
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Extract

Excessive alcohol consumption over a prolonged period of time may result in a variety of neuropsychiatric complications (Victor and Adams, 1953). The most frequent of these is alcoholic tremulousness which may be complicated in 25 per cent of cases by perceptual disturbances ranging from transitory misinterpretations of familiar objects to visual and auditory hallucinations (Victor and Adams, 1953). Closely related to this condition are delirium tremens (Victor and Adams, 1953; Lundquist, 1961; Nielsen, 1965), and acute or chronic auditory hallucinosis (Benedetti, 1952; Victor and Hope, 1958). In clinical practice intermediate or atypical forms of these syndromes are seen (Sabot, Gross and Halpert, 1968).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 121 , Issue 563 , October 1972 , pp. 357 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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