Delirium tremens usually lasts three to six days, and sometimes ends in death. This was one of the worst cases the doctor had ever seen. When the patient, a 37-year-old bartender, was carried into the doctor's office, imaginary rats were gnawing his feet, wild-eyed cats scrambling over his body, flames licking at his stretcher. The man was screaming and jumping with terror.
Dr. Robert V. Seliger, Johns Hopkins' famed alcoholism specialist, first quieted the patient with sedatives, then fed into his veins two "quarts of a mixed solution of sugar, salt, vitamin B-1 and...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
