PreprintArticleVersion 1Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy
Version 1
: Received: 10 May 2024 / Approved: 10 May 2024 / Online: 10 May 2024 (18:32:23 CEST)
How to cite:
Giustino, A.; Natola, A.; Savoia, G.; Salvia, M. A. D.; Finelli, C. Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy. Preprints2024, 2024050697. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0697.v1
Giustino, A.; Natola, A.; Savoia, G.; Salvia, M. A. D.; Finelli, C. Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy. Preprints 2024, 2024050697. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0697.v1
Giustino, A.; Natola, A.; Savoia, G.; Salvia, M. A. D.; Finelli, C. Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy. Preprints2024, 2024050697. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0697.v1
APA Style
Giustino, A., Natola, A., Savoia, G., Salvia, M. A. D., & Finelli, C. (2024). Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0697.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Giustino, A., Maria Antonietta De Salvia and Carmine Finelli. 2024 "Reduced Pharmacological Intervention of Prehospital Services for Acute Alcohol Intoxication during the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Large District of Southern Italy" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0697.v1
Abstract
Stress during a pandemic increased the risk of alcohol consumption, which may require pharmacological management. The characteristics of emergency calls for alcohol-related issues for patients pharmacologically treated, admitted to, or not admitted to the emergency department (ED) were analyzed. An observational single-center retrospective study was conducted from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021, and divided into 2-year periods (2018–2019 and 2020–2021). This study focused on calls to one of the EDs of seven hospitals in the Bari (Italy) metropolitan area for patients requiring emergency services (ES) who were either admitted or not admitted, due to their refusal. A 30% reduction in emergency calls for alcohol-related issues and a 41.17% reduction in calls for patients who refused to be admitted to the ED were observed during the pandemic. During the pandemic, a reduced rate of pharmacological treatment for calls coded green (non-critical), and an increase in calls coded yellow (fairly critical) and red (very critical) were recorded. Metadoxine was administered in almost all alcohol-related emergencies, primarily in conjunction with drugs acting on the gastrointestinal tract, irrespective of age, the period considered, and whether patients were admitted or not admitted to the ED. ES is the first and only out-of-hospital service encountered by numerous patients with alcohol-use disorders who refuse to be admitted to the ED. These patients should be directed by ES personnel to a multidisciplinary program to receive treatment for drinking, improve their quality of life, and reduce sanitation costs.
Keywords
emergency service; acute alcohol intoxication; triage; pharmacological treatment; public health
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Internal Medicine
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
