By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
Deaths caused by alcohol consumption in the United States have triggered the covid-19 pandemic, killing more than 49,000 people in 2020, according to data released Friday by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U. S.
The alcohol-induced death rate has increased in recent decades, but increased by 26% between 2019 and 2020, almost the same accumulation in a year as in the last decade. compared to 10. 4 deaths compared to another 100,000 people in 2019.
“What is a bigger word than crisis?” said Marvin Ventrell, Executive Director of the National Association of Drug Treatment Providers. “What is already a crisis, exploded. “
Alcoholic liver disease is the underlying cause of more than a portion of alcohol-related deaths in 2020, followed by intellectual and behavioral disorders due to alcohol use. .
Including other deaths attributable to binge drinking but not directly caused by it, such as cancer, central disease and unintentional injuries such as car injuries, nearly triples the number of alcohol-related deaths, according to the CDC. of alcohol-related deaths well above the number of drug overdose deaths, which reached record levels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Americans have been drinking more during the covid-19 pandemic, which experts say has created an environment conducive to alcohol abuse.
“We know that on large-scale traumatic occasions for the population, such as September 11 or Hurricane Katrina, other people traditionally start drinking more. The pandemic has been, as we all know, a major stressor in our lives,” said George F. Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
“What we found through many small studies is that about 25 percent of the population consumed more alcohol and that those other people drank to cope with stress. And many other people who drink to cope with stress inevitably end up with an alcohol use disorder. “
Wide social acceptance and easy accessibility make alcohol a simple option for coping with stress, and it’s easy to overlook problematic alcohol use, experts say.
“If a substance is harmful, the higher the substance, the more damage it creates. What is the maximum ible substance? Alcohol. And what is the least socially stigmatized substance in relation to its use?Alcohol,” Ventrell said.
“You can just say, ‘Joe’s drinking too much, but he’s just Joe. ‘But no one says, “Joe uses too much meth, but he’s a smart dad. “
And while experts say the effects of alcohol abuse may be less rapid than those of other drugs, they are no less devastating.
“Alcohol has an insidious course, meaning it produces wear and tear on its structure over a long period of time,” said Dr. James Latronica, a family physician with addiction medicine facilities at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Western Psychiatric Hospital. .
According to CDC data, middle-aged men were the most likely to die from binge drinking in 2020. The highest death rate among older men aged 55 to 64: There were only about 60 deaths compared to 100,000 other people in this age group, more than 4 times the overall rate. Mortality rates for women were also higher for this age group, but 3 times lower than those for men.
But in the first year of the pandemic, the highest death rates among young men under forty-five and the largest increases among women were between the ages of 25 and 44, confirming that alcohol is causing physical disorders in younger teams than before. Another study published earlier this week found that in the five years leading up to the covid-19 pandemic, one in five deaths of American adults ages 20 to 49 was due to binge drinking.
At any age, men were at least twice as likely as women to die from alcohol-induced causes, but the overall gap narrowed in 2020.
Experts tell something about this update to the pandemic.
“There’s an interaction with intellectual fitness that has been most exposed to the pandemic,” Koob said. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety and depression, and the strain of the pandemic is probably hitting hard.
“And they are also more vulnerable to the pathological effects of alcohol, ranging from liver disease to some interactions with intellectual health,” he said.
Because of the cumulative effects of excessive alcohol abuse, experts say the effects of the pandemic will most likely continue to cause alcohol-related deaths for years to come.
But greater access to repair can mitigate the loss; Testing rates have improved, experts say, but fewer than one in 10 people with an alcohol use disorder get the treatment they need.
“With those studies, some other people might worry if their alcohol dates aren’t healthy,” Latronica said. Alcohol can cause a lot of problems, he says, but it’s much less difficult to fix when you communicate about it and you can start with a number one care visit.
El-CNN-Wire™