How Many Units of Alcohol a Day Predict a Serious Detox

Hi Ann,

That's a good question and it's something that needed clarifying in the article (which has been updated.) A unit is 10 grams of pure alcohol. There are about 1.5 units in a standard drink (such as 1 can of regular strength beer, 5 oz of regular strength wine or 1.5 ounces of 40% alcohol liquor.) 20 units, therefore equals 13.3 standard drinks per day.

Of course, this is just one of a number of things to take into account when trying to predict a person's likely withdrawal severity. Since you can prevent withdrawal symptoms from getting serious with preventative medications but it's much harder to control serious symptoms once they get started, it's always better to err on the side of caution and play it safe.