Alcohol Withdrawal Rates in Hospitalized Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is disrupting communities across the globe, causing physical, mental, and financial distress.1 Economic crises have been associated with increased alcohol consumption.2 Necessary public health measures may exacerbate isolation and stress, negatively impacting those who are at risk for harmful alcohol use. Increased alcohol use has been documented in the US and other countries during the pandemic, and a recent study3 has identified associated consequences. Alcohol withdrawal (AW) is a potentially dangerous complication of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in up to 8% of all hospitalized patients with AUD.4 AW has been suspected to worsen after the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders,5 but, to our knowledge, no objective data have been reported in the literature. We hypothesized that AW rates in hospitalized patients with AUD increased during the pandemic and conducted a cohort study at Christiana Care, a large, tertiary care hospital system in Newark, Delaware.