Symptom-triggered therapy involves administering medication only when the patient has symptoms. Patients can be repeatedly assessed using the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol Scale (CIWAS-Ar) to measure withdrawal severity and then administered a dose of benzodiazepine based on the scale score (enough treatment is administered to keep the scale score below 8). This can be done every 15 minutes for patients with severe symptoms or every 4 hours for stable patients. This method results in better clinical endpoints, less drug administered, and shorter hospitalization.
 
A copy of the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol Scale (CIWAS-Ar) to measure withdrawal severity and a possible treatment schedule are listed in the supplementary  Pdfs.