Alcohol withdrawal recognition and screening in the acute medical setting.

The increase in high risk drinking patterns, and binge drinking in particular, pose substantial problems for health services and represent a major public health issue. The most recent European Barometer survey on attitudes towards alcohol reports a Europe wide increase in alcohol consumption [1]. Europe is the continent with the highest per capita alcohol consumption in the world with an estimated burden of disease attributable to alcohol of 8–10% [1], compared to the global figure of 4–5% [2]. Emergency Department (ED) presentations and hospital admissions attributable to alcohol have increased over the past decade [3–5]