Alladio Eugenio, Visintin Lia, Lombardo Tonia, Testi Roberto, Salomone Alberto, Vincenti Marco
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy.
Centro Regionale Antidoping e di Tossicologia "A. Bertinaria", Torino, Italy.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 6;12:632519. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.632519. eCollection 2021.
The increase in stress levels, social confinement, and addiction's physical consequences play an essential role in the proliferation of drug abuse. In this context, the Covid-19 pandemic produced remarkable effects on those individuals prone to addictions, especially to alcohol. Alcohol is linked to multiple dangerous conditions such as social issues, severe medical conditions, and road accidents. The determination of ethylglucuronide (EtG) in hair is frequently performed to test and monitor chronic excessive alcohol intake conditions, as it allows differentiation among low-risk/moderate drinkers, and excessive/chronic drinkers. Our study aimed to explore hair EtG levels in a controlled population to assess the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on alcohol intake along March-May 2020. EtG levels were measured in all hair samples collected in the months following April 2020 to evaluate the behaviors related to alcohol intake along with the time frame from March to May 2020. The measured concentration distributions for each month were compared with those reported in the same month during the previous 4 years (2016-2019). The dataset was built to highlight possible differences between genders, and the different categories of alcohol consumption, separately. The samples collected from April to August 2020 (500 < <1,100 per month) showed an increase in the percentage of subjects classified as abstinent/low-risk drinkers (from 60 up to 79%) and a decrease of subjects classified as moderate and chronic drinkers (-12 and -7%, respectively) when compared to the previous 4 years. A decrease in the overall mean value of EtG in the period April-June 2020 was observed, while the EtG levels of both June and July 2020 provided an increasing trend for chronic/excessive consumers (+27 and +19% for June and July 2020, respectively). A peculiar rise in the EtG levels of moderate and chronic/excessive female consumers was observed along April-June 2020, too. Behavioral and social studies generally report a decrease in alcohol consumption during the Covid-19 lockdown. However, people already suffering from drug or alcohol addictions before Covid-19 pandemic seemingly enhance their harmful behavior. Our data from April to August 2020 are consistent with both suppositions. Our observations confirm once again the utility of EtG to investigate the patterns of alcohol consumption in the population.
压力水平的增加、社交限制以及成瘾的身体后果在药物滥用的扩散中起着至关重要的作用。在这种背景下，新冠疫情对那些容易成瘾的人，尤其是对酒精成瘾的人产生了显著影响。酒精与多种危险状况相关，如社会问题、严重疾病和道路交通事故。毛发中乙基葡萄糖醛酸（EtG）的测定常用于检测和监测慢性过量饮酒情况，因为它能够区分低风险/适度饮酒者以及过量/长期饮酒者。我们的研究旨在探索在一个受控制人群中的毛发EtG水平，以评估2020年3月至5月新冠疫情封锁对酒精摄入量的影响。在2020年4月之后收集的所有毛发样本中测量EtG水平，以评估与酒精摄入相关的行为以及2020年3月至5月的时间范围。将每个月测量的浓度分布与前4年（2016 - 2019年）同月报告的分布进行比较。构建数据集以分别突出性别之间以及不同酒精消费类别之间可能存在的差异。与前4年相比，2020年4月至8月收集的样本（每月500 << 1100）显示，被归类为戒酒者/低风险饮酒者的比例有所增加（从60%增至79%），而被归类为适度饮酒者和长期饮酒者的比例有所下降（分别下降12%和7%）。观察到2020年4月至6月期间EtG的总体平均值有所下降，而2020年6月和7月的EtG水平对于长期/过量消费者呈现上升趋势（2020年6月和7月分别上升27%和19%）。在2020年4月至6月期间，适度饮酒者以及长期/过量饮酒的女性消费者的EtG水平也出现了特殊的上升。行为和社会研究通常报告在新冠疫情封锁期间酒精消费量有所下降。然而，在新冠疫情之前就已经患有药物或酒精成瘾问题 的人似乎增强了他们的有害行为。我们2020年4月至8月的数据与这两种假设均相符。我们的观察再次证实了EtG在调查人群中酒精消费模式方面的效用。
