Your reliance on caffeine or nicotine could make your hospital stay much worse

Preliminary research suggests that a coffee or a smoking habit can cause serious problems to a person if she ends up in the hospital. Patients in the intensive care unit often suffer from withdrawal symptoms due to caffeine and nicotine, he discovered. Even worse, doctors could confuse the cause of these symptoms with something else, which would lead to unnecessary tests or treatments.

The authors of the research, presented this weekend at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anesthesiology, conducted a review of the medical literature on people suffering from withdrawal symptoms in intensive care. They finally examined 12 studies involving nearly 500 adults treated in intensive care from 2000 to 2018.

They found that nicotine-free smokers were twice as likely to feel particularly agitated during intensive care (64% vs. 32%). This agitation also makes them more likely to have their intubation tubes or intravenous lines dislodged (14% of movements caused by agitation in smokers compared to 3% of non-smokers), which can be harmful and detrimental to their health. healing.

Withdrawal of caffeine was associated with drowsiness, nausea, vomiting, headache and a higher rate of delirium (a complex disease characterized by cognitive impairment).

These physical problems are only part of the problem, according to lead author Maya Belitova, associate professor at Sofia Medical University in Bulgaria.

"These symptoms resemble conditions such as meningitis, encephalitis, and intracranial hemorrhage .This may cloud clinical diagnoses and lead to unnecessary tests that may be harmful to the patient, cost a lot of people." 39, money and waste time, "said Belitova in a statement issued by the European Society of Anesthesiology.

Doctors' lack of familiarity with the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine and caffeine also makes it difficult to know the best way to help ICU patients who suffer from it, noted Belitova and her co-workers. authors.

Some of the research they have examined, for example, suggests that caffeine injections may relieve headaches associated with withdrawal, but there is little or no evidence of their effect on ICU patients. And while nicotine replacement therapy may help reduce withdrawal symptoms, it has also been shown that it can also contribute to a higher risk of prolonged delirium, which can then make healing more likely.

"Patients in the intensive care unit may benefit from nicotine replacement or caffeine supplementation, but with little evidence of their efficacy, this should be left to the judgment of referring physicians," he said. Belitova.

The risk of confusion is really great, even in the United States, where these vices are not as widespread as in Europe. Some surveys suggest that nearly two-thirds of Americans drink at least one cup of coffee each day, while 14% smoke cigarettes.