Alcoholic hallucinosis (or alcohol-related psychosis) is a complication of alcohol withdrawal in alcoholics. This develops about 12 to 24 hours after drinking stops and involves auditory and visual hallucinations, most commonly accusatory or threatening voices. This condition is distinct from delirium tremens since it develops and resolves rapidly, involves a limited set of hallucinations and has no other physical symptoms.
The risk of developing alcoholic hallucinosis is increased by long-term heavy alcohol abuse and the use of other, illicit drugs.
Descriptions of the condition date back to at least 1907.
Famous quotes containing the word alcoholic:
“The alcoholic trance is not just a haze, as though the eyes were also unshaven. It is not a mere buzzing in the ears, a dizziness or disturbance of balance. One arrives in the garden again, at nursery time, when the gentle animals are fed and in all the world there are only toys.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)