Swiss hospital treats delirious patients with beer

Basel University Hospital is prescribing beer to treat the effects of delirium on intensive patients during a clinical study. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Random patients are being given half a litre of wheat beer through a gastric tube every evening for six days. The reasoning is that many people are used to a beer or a glass of wine in the evening as part of their normal daily routine. “One possible cause of delirium is alcohol, which patients regularly consume in very small quantities. If they no longer get it, they become more susceptible to delirium,” Martin Siegemund, head physician of the hospital’s intensive care unit, told Swiss public broadcaster SRF. Delirium is a state of confusion experienced by many intensive care patients and which creates stress. “Patients are confused. They no longer know where they are. For example they can thinks they are in Paris or want to see their children even though they don't have any,” said Siegemund.