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Overall, during the pandemic, there has been a surge in addiction related behaviours. Studies suggest an increase in alcohol, cannabis and tobacco use, screen time, behavioural addictions, higher salt and calorie intake 22\u201325. As expected, there was also an increase in risky health behaviours like physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyle, but some evidence suggests that people adapted to the changes towards the end of lockdown 26. At the same time, people with active alcohol use disorder shouldn\u2019t suddenly stop drinking without medical supervision, as alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous. Perhaps most worrisome, studies show that chronic high alcohol consumption can significantly increase the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a potentially fatal respiratory condition in which fluid accumulates in the lungs. In this review to understand the effects of alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in the pattern of use of alcohol and resultant effects are evident.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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In countries where alcohol was considered as an essential commodity, this resulted in increased home-based alcohol consumption 95. However, although almost two-thirds of the sample reported that their alcohol consumption had increased during COVID-19, it should be noted that 12.8% of the participants reported that their alcohol consumption had decreased. One factor in their decreased consumption might be that a larger percentage of these individuals were males without children.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Governments should refrain from abrupt and knee-jerk alcohol policy changes (either a sudden \u2018ban\u2019, \u2018online sale of alcohol\u2019, declaring alcohol as \u2018essential\u2019) and instead adopt evidence-based decision making. Adequate information to the public in the event of anticipated limitations of access and information on treatment services should be provided on priority. Further, governments should adopt adequate measures to protect vulnerable populations. Importantly, posthoc research on impact of such decisions need to be undertaken. In the UK, alcohol purchase increased by 40% during lockdown across all strata 103.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Some evidence suggests that post-COVID-19 fatigue syndrome may share characteristics with ME\/CFS, a condition where approximately 4 out of 5 people exhibit alcohol intolerance. In US, online tweets related to alcohol blackouts significantly increased during the lockdown 99. This raises concerns related to drinking and driving in the absence of dine-in alcohol locations. COVID-19 and the related lockdown has affected the mental health of people, particularly vulnerable populations 56.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A summary of studies from different countries (China, Finland, Belgium, Chile, US, Poland) reports increased alcohol consumption during lockdown compared to prelockdown 22,24,26\u201330. Specifically, many studies report an increase in binge drinking, as well as solitary drinking 27,29,31,32\u25aa,33,34. Although some studies observed an increase in drinking among women 27,35, others did not observe gender differences in alcohol use patterns 36.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n