Acute Organic Brain Syndrome: A Complication of Disulfiram Therapy

Consecutive admissions over a three-month period to a general psychiatric ward in a large urban medical center were reviewed for the presence of acute organic brain syndrome in patients being treated with disulfiram for chronic alcoholism. Five such cases were identified. The patients had initially been misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and had been treated with psychotropic medications, generally with less than optimum results. The authors suggest the withdrawal of the offending agent and the use of supportive measures and sedation rather than major psychotropic medication as the treatments of choice for this syndrome.