Question:easy
A patient is a known alcoholic since the last 20 years. He suddenly develops restless tremors and agitation. The diagnosis is?
A patient is a known alcoholic since the last 20 years. He suddenly develops restless tremors and agitation. The diagnosis is?
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Sudden tremors and agitation in a chronic drinker means acute withdrawal.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Delirium tremens
- Psychosis
- Wernicke's encephalopathy
- Korsakoff's syndrome
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Spot the trigger and the tempo. Two decades of drinking followed by a sudden onset of tremor and agitation points straight to alcohol withdrawal, where the brain rebounds into overexcitation once alcohol is stopped.
Step 2: The most dangerous and florid form of this is $delirium\ tremens$, classically appearing within a few days of the last drink with shaking, restlessness, clouded sensorium, and surging autonomic signs.
Step 3: Cross off the rest: Wernicke gives an eye-movement, gait, and confusion triad from thiamine lack; Korsakoff is a lasting memory loss with confabulation; plain psychosis does not explain the withdrawal tremor.
\[\boxed{Delirium\ tremens}\]
Step 2: The most dangerous and florid form of this is $delirium\ tremens$, classically appearing within a few days of the last drink with shaking, restlessness, clouded sensorium, and surging autonomic signs.
Step 3: Cross off the rest: Wernicke gives an eye-movement, gait, and confusion triad from thiamine lack; Korsakoff is a lasting memory loss with confabulation; plain psychosis does not explain the withdrawal tremor.
\[\boxed{Delirium\ tremens}\]
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