The Drug and Alcohol Care Team at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust have been investigating the role that alcohol itself may play in the management of alcohol withdrawal in acute hospitals.
To date, we have:
- Reviewed the clinical data that they collect as part of routine practice, including the effect of oral alcohol on CIWA-Ar scores and avoidance of unplanned admissions
- Summarised the current published evidence base surrounding oral or intravenous alcohol for the management of alcohol withdrawal,
- Investigated healthcare professional's perspectives about the use of alcohol as a medicine who work at the trust, and
- Conducted a brief patient feedback exercise.
We now want to hear more about what people outside of our trust and clinical setting think about alcohol being used as an intervention. We would like to use this information to inform any future optimisation work at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, and potentially run trials where we compare outcomes of people treated with benzodiazepines versus oral ethanol. However, to do this we need to know what is feasible and what is acceptable to healthcare providers and patients.
We have three studies currently open where you can share your perspectives, please feel free to take part in any that apply to you:
1. An online questionnaire for professional stakeholders to complete:
HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS PERSPECTIVES OF ALCOHOL PRESCRIBING
2. An online semi-structured interview study for professional stakeholders to share more depth experiences or perspectives around the use of alcohol as a medicine.
To register your interest please email: darren.quelch2@nhs.net
3. An online questionnaire for individuals with lived experience of problematic alcohol consumption patterns to complete in their own time, or with the assistance of a healthcare professional:
ALCOHOL PRESCRIBING FOR ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL MANAGEMENT
The surveys should take no more than 10 minutes to complete, and our interview study will last no longer than 1 hour.
This study has been granted NHS REC and HRA approval (IRAS357586; 25/SW/0082)
Other News & Events