Phenobarbital as First-Line Medication for Alcohol Withdrawal: Have You Switched From Benzodiazepines Yet?
ALiEM
JUNE 1, 2023
Are you using phenobarbital instead of benzodiazepines as the first-line monotherapy for patients in alcohol withdrawal in the Emergency Department (ED)? If not, you probably should be. Another old drug for a new indication, right? Well not exactly. Phenobarbital is indeed an older and relatively cheap drug (less than $20 per loading dose) that has gained some press recently for the treatment of acute alcohol withdrawal [1-3].
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