CIWA-Ar assessment includes which of the following symptoms?

• A. Sweating at night
• B. Nausea/vomiting
• C. Blood pressure drop
• D. Seizures

Answer: (B)

CIWA-Ar measures how severe alcohol withdrawal is by scoring a set of symptoms that commonly appear as withdrawal develops. Nausea and vomiting is one of the explicit items on the scale, and its score reflects how much the GI distress is contributing to the withdrawal picture. Along with this, the tool covers tremors, autonomic signs like sweating (noting paroxysmal sweating rather than just “night sweating”), anxiety, agitation, perceptual disturbances, headaches, and orientation changes. Seizures are a serious complication of withdrawal but are not an item on the CIWA-Ar itself; they signal the need for more intensive treatment rather than being scored directly by the scale. Blood pressure changes aren’t a standalone item either, though autonomic arousal is considered. So nausea/vomiting is the best-match symptom because it is an explicit, scored component of the CIWA-Ar.