The "Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale" (PAWSS)

Completed

Conditions studied: Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome

In brief

Although there are several tools that can be used to evaluate the severity of ongoing alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), there is no available tool that can predict which patients are at risk for developing AWS at the time admission, before the patient has developed AWS. Unfortunately, there are severe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal (e.g., seizures) which may develop early in the hospitalization, and before the development of other systemic symptoms which may warn medical personnel of the possibility of impeding alcohol withdrawal (e.g., autonomic instability, delirium). The goal of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties (e.g., predictive validity) of a new tool, the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS), on identifying which patients are at risk for developing complicated AWS (i.e., seizures, hallucinosis, delirium tremens) among hospitalized, medically ill patients.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01637415

Run by

Stanford University

People needed

409

Starts

2012-05-01

Expected to finish

2014-06-01

Last updated by the study team

2015-01-30

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Adult patients - defined as 18+ years of age
• Able to understand and communicate in English.
• Admission to the hospital within the last 24 hours to selected Stanford Hospital and Clinics inpatient units from the ED, outpatient clinics/community, or other SHC medical units.
• Without an imminent discharge plan, (within 48 hours of study screening).
• Willing and able to freely consent and participate.

You may not qualify if…

• Unable or unwilling to consent and participate.
• Unable to understand and communicate in English.
• Patients transferred from outside medical facilities.
• Patients with imminent discharge plan (i.e., not expected to remain in the hospital for at least 48 hours after enrollment into the study)
• Uncontrolled active seizure disorder.
• Active severe AWS (as defined by CIWA = or > 20) on initial assessment.
• Identified by the primary team as too sick to participate.

Where it is running

• Stanford Hospitals and Clinics — Stanford, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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