Alcohol Abuse Rises During Pandemic, Hospitals

Alcohol Abuse Rises During Pandemic, Hospitals See Wave of Deadly Liver Disease

NOT THE BEST MOVE –

Feb. 8, 2021 – Socially, the “stress of the pandemic has, in some ways, particularly targeted women,” said Dr. Jessica Mellinger, a hepatologist at the University of Michigan. Lower wages, lower job stability and the burdens of parenting tend to fall more heavily on women’s shoulders, she said.

“If you have all of these additional stressors, with all of your forms of support gone — and all you have left is the bottle — that’s what you’ll resort to,” Mellinger said. “But a woman who drinks like a man gets sicker faster.”

Nationwide, more adults are turning to the bottle during the pandemic: One study found rates of alcohol consumption in the spring of 2020 were up 14% compared with the same period in 2019; another found drinkers consumed nearly 30% morethan in pre-pandemic months. Unemployment, isolation, lack of daily structure and boredom all have increased the risk of heightened alcohol use.

“The pandemic has brought out our uneasy relationship with alcohol,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, an addiction psychiatrist at UCLA. “We’ve welcomed it into our homes as our crutch and our best friend.”

These relapses, and the hospitalizations they cause, can be life-threatening. More than 1 in 20 patients with alcohol-related liver failure die before leaving the hospital, and alcohol-related liver disease is the leading cause for transplantation.