Medicine – MCQ 170 – 40 year old alcoholic with hallucinations

A 40 year old male with history of daily alcohol consumption for the last 7 years, is brought to the hospital emergency room with acute onsent of seeing snakes all around him in the room, not recognizing family members, violent behavior and tremulousness for a few hours. There is history of his having missed the alcohol drink for 2 days. Examination reveals increased blood pressure, tremors, increased psychomotor activity, fearful affect, hallucinatory behaviour, disorientation, impaired judgement and insight. He is most likely to be suffering from:
A. Alcoholic hallucinosis
B. Delirium tremens
C. Wernicke encephalopathy
D. Korsakoff’ s psychosis

Correct answer : B. Delirium tremens

The clinical picture is characteristic of Delirium tremens.