Phenobarbital monotherapy vs benzodiazepines for alcohol withdrawal syndrome: a multicenter propensity-matched comparative effectiveness study - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome
- #Comparative Effectiveness
- #Pharmacotherapy
- Phenobarbital monotherapy for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) was compared to benzodiazepines in a multicenter propensity-matched study.
- The study used data from the TriNetX Global Collaborative Network, including 4712 matched patients per group after propensity score matching.
- Phenobarbital was associated with a significantly higher risk of admission to critical care settings (RR 1.85).
- Phenobarbital showed significantly lower risks of seizures (RR 0.70) and delirium tremens (RR 0.52).
- There was also a lower risk of escalation to additional sedative therapy with phenobarbital (RR 0.89).
- No significant differences were found in mechanical ventilation, vasopressor use, aspiration pneumonitis, or in-hospital mortality between the two groups.
- The findings suggest phenobarbital is a viable alternative treatment for AWS in hospitalized patients despite higher critical care utilization.