Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada; Research Center of the Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H1N 3V2, Canada.
Research Center of the Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H1N 3V2, Canada; Department of Psychiatry and Addictology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1J4, Canada.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2023 Apr;150:106051. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106051. Epub 2023 Feb 5.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an increase in alcohol use in a third of the population worldwide. To date, the literature shows that subjective reports of stress predicted increased alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic. However, no studies have investigated the effect of physiological stress (via the stress hormone cortisol) on alcohol use during the pandemic. This study aimed to identify the predictive value of cortisol and/or subjective stress on alcohol use during the first year of the pandemic. Every three months, between June 2020 and March 2021, 79 healthy adults (19-54 years old) answered online questionnaires assessing alcohol use. In May 2020, participants reported pre-pandemic alcohol use, while in June 2020, participants reported current alcohol use, subjective stress measures, and provided a 6 cm hair sample. The latter allowed us to quantify the cumulative levels of cortisol produced in the three months prior to and following the start of the mandatory lockdown measures in March 2020 in Quebec, Canada. A relative change in hair cortisol was computed to quantify the physiological stress response. While controlling for sex, age, and psychiatric diagnoses, multilevel linear regressions revealed that alcohol use increased only among people with concomitant high subjective stress and elevated hair cortisol concentrations. Moreover, this increased alcohol use remained elevated one year later. This study documents the importance of simultaneously considering stress biomarkers and subjective stress to identify people at risk of increasing their alcohol use during major stressful life events.
COVID-19 大流行期间，全球有三分之一的人饮酒量增加。迄今为止，文献表明，压力的主观报告预测了大流行早期饮酒量的增加。然而，尚无研究调查生理应激（通过应激激素皮质醇）对大流行期间饮酒量的影响。本研究旨在确定皮质醇和/或主观压力对大流行第一年饮酒量的预测价值。在 2020 年 6 月至 2021 年 3 月期间的每三个月，79 名健康成年人（19-54 岁）在线回答了评估饮酒量的问卷。2020 年 5 月，参与者报告了大流行前的饮酒量，而在 2020 年 6 月，参与者报告了当前的饮酒量、主观压力测量值，并提供了 6 厘米的头发样本。后者使我们能够量化 2020 年 3 月加拿大魁北克省强制封锁措施开始前后三个月内产生的皮质醇累积水平。计算头发皮质醇的相对变化以量化生理应激反应。在控制性别、年龄和精神科诊断的情况下，多级线性回归显示，只有同时存在高主观压力和高头发皮质醇浓度的人，饮酒量才会增加。此外，一年后这种饮酒量的增加仍保持在较高水平。本研究记录了同时考虑应激生物标志物和主观压力以识别在重大生活压力事件中增加饮酒量风险人群的重要性。
