As the world battles against difficulties emerging from the spread of COVID-19, alcohol consumption has become a typical adapting reaction to diminish pressure in the midst of the pandemic, as per the specialists.
The article was distributed in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Considering COVID-19, specialists at McLean Hospital analyzed expected approaches to direct and lessen rising liquor utilization despite the pandemic.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic is longer enduring and more extensive than past awful accidents – with widespread social disturbance and disconnection, limited social support and access to medical care, and negative homegrown and worldwide financial effects – it could have had a much more prominent impact on population-wide alcohol use.
“We hope this article will call attention to the pandemic’s effects on alcohol use and offer mitigating approaches to this under-recognized public health concern,” said co-author Dawn E Sugarman, PhD, a research psychologist in the Centre of Excellence in Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction at McLean Hospital.
The article focuses on that general wellbeing messages ought to incorporate instruction about overseeing pressure and tension without utilizing liquor, drinking inside safe cutoff points during physical separating and social disengagement, and knowing when an individual should be worried about themselves or another person.
The authors also call for greater efforts to screen for alcohol use disorders during primary care visits and to provide treatments for individuals at risk for relapse or exacerbation of heavy drinking.
“Increasing identification of harmful alcohol use in patients and intervening early are key components of addressing this problem. In addition, recognition of the problem from policymakers could lead to changes in federal regulations–such as we have seen with telehealth-and improvements in access to health care,” said co-author Shelly F Greenfield, MD, MPH, director of the Alcohol, Drug, and Addiction Clinical and Health Services Research Program at McLean Hospital.
The experts noted that the full impact of COVID-19 on alcohol use is not yet known, but rising rates during the first few months of the pandemic point to the urgent need for effective public health and medical responses.
