We have regularly reported on the continuing rise in opioid and overdose
deaths during this pandemic. But what has gotten far less attention
is a sharp increase in alcohol related deaths as well.
William Branham looks at a new study about that crisis and the reasons
behind the surge.
That's right. Judy Alcohol related deaths were going up before the
pandemic began, but they really accelerated once the virus emerged.
A study this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association
found that during the first year of the pandemic, alcohol related
deaths increased dramatically by 25% in 2020 deaths jumped from about
79,000 year to 99,000.
And this spike was seen across all drinking age groups. So what is
driving this Katherine Keyes is an epidemiologist at Columbia University's
Mailman School of Public Health.
She focuses on substance abuse addiction in psychiatry, Catherine
Great to have you on the news hour. So as I mentioned
Alcohol related deaths had been rising before the pandemic, but then
really took off when you look at that those results does that make
sense to you? Um yes, you know, certainly. What we know. Pre pandemic
is that alcohol consumption and alcohol related deaths have been
going up in the United States for about the last 10 years.
And what we know is that during the pandemic, there were a couple
of factors that have really contributed to that acceleration. One
is the loss of connection with alcohol related services and treatment
programs for people who have a history of alcohol related problems.
And that's then combined with the stress of the pandemic.
And financial stressors that are associated with it. Um, that created
the conditions that
You know, lead to relapse and other increases in heavy drinking,
especially among people with a history of heavy drinking and related
problems and the things that you cited that people are stuck at home.
It is stressful. Perhaps it's not as expensive versus if you're drinking
out. It costs a lot more than if you bought that alcohol yourself.
Does that give any sense as to what we ought to be doing as far as
trying to prevent these kinds of deaths from happening? Sure, of
course, yes, there were many changes and alcohol policy that occurred
across many states that made alcohol less restrictive and lower cost,
especially people who are drinking at home. And what we know from
decades of public health work is that population level interventions
such as
Increasing the price of alcohol have a population level effects.
So bring down alcohol consumption sort of at all points along, um,
the distribution of people who are consuming alcohol, certainly increasing
price and providing more tighter regulations on access to alcohol
would be, uh,
A evidence based on effective intervention to reduce alcohol related
death. What are the other ways that people may not be as aware of
that alcohol?
Hurts the human body. I mean, how is it that that alcohol is causing
this many deaths?
Yeah, Alcohol is a carcinogen, and it affects many systems in the
body. We know that heavy levels of alcohol consumption can be associated
with cardiovascular disease and even acute cardio myopathy and other
conditions that might affect otherwise healthy people. Even at young
ages, and at older ages, you know, a cascade of deaths related to
alcohol can involve both heart disease.
Liver damage and other sources of chronic morbidity, including cancer
in many older folks.
We mentioned earlier that there were certainly a surgeon opioid related
deaths during the pandemic that had really again those had also been
going up but really took off. Also during the pandemic, are those
things connected. Are there is there an often an overlap between
alcohol use and other drug use?
Yes, That's right. Um, alcohol and opioids can be a very fatal combination,
And we know that many people who die of an opioid overdose. There
are more than one substance involved. And oftentimes that does involve
alcohol. So these policy, substance related deaths are increasing
across the United States and the contribution of alcohol to opioid
overdose. Can't be understated, You know, certainly what we're seeing
in terms of this acceleration of alcohol related deaths.
Intersects vary directly with the opioid overdose epidemic.
You touched on this before, But certainly anyone that has ever tried
to get anyone into psychiatric here or substance abuse treatment
knows that it's a very, very difficult thing to do with access and
insurance and just availability and
That seems like that's going to be an ongoing issue that even if
the virus recedes that this is going to be a real problem that people
can have a hard time getting care for.
Yes, although I would say, you know. Now we have a variety of relatively
low barrier outpatient interventions for people who want to reduce
their drinking, You know, even for people who don't want to be completely
abstinent from drinking, but just feel like they're drinking too
much. And so I would certainly encourage anyone who is concerned
about their drinking level or the drinking level of a loved one.
To talk to a health care provider about the different types of interventions
that are available, um, because oftentimes this is a condition that
can be treated in an outpatient environment.
Alright. Katherine Keyes is a as an epidemiologist at Columbia University's
Mailman School. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks so much
for having me.