[Various aspects of the clinical picture and differential treatment of patients with alcoholic delirium].

A total of 775 patients with alcoholic delirium were examined. Alcoholic delirium was found to have undergone a certain pathomorphosis, manifesting in a more pronounced somatic pathology and less representative hallucinational symptomatology. A number of new variants of alcoholic delirium are presented along with the typical and previously described ones. These include: (a) short-term (within 24 hours) gross neurological symptomatology due to a transient impairment of the cerebral blood circulation following the toxic impact of alcohol on the cerebral vessels; (b) alcoholic delirium with a longer transient impairment of the cerebral blood circulation for as long as three months; (c) alcoholic delirium with prolonged subclinical symptomatology and a negligible effect on the patients' behaviour which is subsequently transformed into a sharp psychomotor excitement, epileptiform paroxysm, etc., and finally into a comatose state caused by brain edema. Treatment should be differential, with due regard for the severity of the disease, and aimed at the recovery of the normal sleep pattern, detoxification as well as prevention and control of grave somatic complications.