Alcohol consumption has become a common coping response to reduce stress amid the pandemic, according to the experts.
The article was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Considering COVID-19, experts at McLean Hospital examined potential ways to moderate and reduce rising alcohol consumption in the face of the pandemic.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic is longer lasting and more extensive than previous traumatic events-with widespread social disruption and isolation, limited social support and access to medical care, and negative domestic and global economic impacts-it could have an even greater effect 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.