Alcoholic polyneuritis

Supplement vitamin Bi deficiency states, impaired absorption or increased requirements (pregnancy, lactation, alcoholism) Therapy beriberi, Wernicke s encephalopathy, neuritis, polyneuritis (alcoholic and toxic), neuralgia, myalgia, myocardia, disorders of the intermediate metabolism Thiamine chloride and hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, cocarboxylase, thiamine pyrophosphate Tablets, sugar-coated pills, dragees, ampules 50-300 mg 0.3-1.2 mg 1.0-1.4 mg... 

Adverse reactions may include acneiform eruptions allergic dermatitis arthropathy multiple cases of cholestatic and fulminant hepatitis drowsiness fatigue headache hepatotoxicity resembling viral or alcoholic hepatitis impotence metallic or garlic-like aftertaste peripheral neuropathy polyneuritis optic or retrobulbar neuritis restlessness occasional skin eruptions. 

Nausea vomiting allergic reactions, including pulmonary infiltration hypotension urticaria fever vesicular rash hypoglycemia headache hemolytic anemia in G-6-PD deficiency and neonates disulfiram-like reaction with alcohol MAO-inhibitor interactions polyneuritis Halofantrine... 

Thiamine, a water-soluble vitamin, is indicated in beriberi, anemia secondary to thiamine deficiency, polyneuritis secondary to alcoholism, pregnancy or pellagra, Wernicke s encephalopathy, and wet beri-beri with myocardial failure. 

Alcoholic polyneuritis has, for long, been held to be due largely to an associated deficiency of thiamine brought about by the unbalanced deficient diet consumed by the chronic alcoholic, together with the chronic gastritis and associated... 

A 27-year-old male, an alcoholic for 13 years, was treated orally half a year earlier without success. In a new therapeutic attempt 1 g disulfiram was implanted subcutaneously and the patient refrained from drinking. 25 days later he became sick with fever, hypertension and polyneuritis, leading to the diagnosis of periarteritis nodosa, which was confirmed by biopsy. Despite intensive treatment he died one year later. The autopsy revealed the lesions typical of periarteritis nodosa in different stages of evolution, accompanied by multiple infarctions (lungs, spleen, testes) (42 ). 

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