Latest news with #alcoholuse
Forbes
3 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
Drunk Driving Jump Tied To Mental Health And Police Cuts, Report Shows
A new study analyzed fatal drunk-driving crashes that occurred from 2018 – 2022 and the factors that ... More may have contributed to them. A national mental health crisis that resulted in more alcohol use and reductions in policing may have fueled a rise in impaired driving deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, policies allowing delivery of alcohol were linked with more deaths, but allowing to-go drinks from bars and restaurants was associated with fewer deaths. Those are the highlights of new research on the pandemic impaired driving death spike released earlier this month by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit financed by the insurance industry. The study was based on an analysis of fatal drunk driving crashes that occurred from 2018 – 2022 and the factors that may have contributed to them. 'These results reinforce the need for a Safe System approach that incorporates multiple measures to combat impaired driving,' David Harkey, the Insurance Institute's president, said in a statement. The Safe System or Vision Zero approach to road safety and design takes human error into account. It was first put into effect in Sweden in the 1990s. The goal is to eliminate all road deaths and serious injuries by creating multiple layers of protection, so if one fails, the others will provide a safety net to lessen the impact of a crash. Improvements are designed to result in: safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and better post-crash care. 'Sobriety checks and other visible policing efforts can only happen if we have enough officers,' Harkey added. 'We should also boost programs that include treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders.' The research paper, 'Factors associated with alcohol-impaired driver crash deaths in the United States, 2018-2022,' analyzed alcohol policies, mental health factors, and law enforcement employment reductions as potential explanations for the increase in alcohol-related deaths. In this country, the proportion of passenger vehicle drivers killed in crashes with blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) at or above 0.08% – the legal limit in most states - increased from 28% in 2019 (before the pandemic began) to 30% in 2020 and remained elevated at 31% in 2022. Poor mental health Self-reported depressive episodes and suicide plans were associated with an increase in impaired driver deaths during the period of examination. In surveys conducted in May 2020, 60% of U.S. adults reported they had been drinking more with the onset of the pandemic, and sales figures for alcohol also showed a higher volume sold from March 2020 to August 2021 than in the same months in 2017-19, according to the study. Mental health issues likely contributed to increased consumption during the pandemic, researchers said, as many Americans struggled with issues like isolation, stress related to the lack of child care and lost income, and worry about health risks. Cuts to police rosters Reductions in full-time law enforcement personnel was also associated with an increase in impaired-driver deaths, which may have reduced hesitation that drinkers had about getting behind the wheel. There was an average loss of five full-time law enforcement officers per 100,000 residents nationwide during the report's study period from 2018 to 2022. Concerns about contracting COVID prompted some departments to scale back on traffic stops and other routine work, according to the study, and some municipalities reduced police funding after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. Mixed impact of alcohol sales policy changes The number of states that allowed bars and restaurants to make home deliveries of alcohol rose from 21 to 37 between January and December of 2020, and the number of those businesses permitted to sell alcoholic drinks to go increased from 21 states to 45. Home-delivery policies were associated with slightly more than 300 additional impaired driver deaths per year in the states that adopted them, but to-go policies were associated with some 450 fewer deaths per year in states with those rules in place, though the reasons are unknown. 'It's notable that the effect of the mental health crisis was more pronounced than the reduction in policing, as the mental health dimension of the impaired-driving problem receives comparatively little attention,' Angela Eichelberger, a senior research scientist at the Insurance Institute and the study's author, said in a statement. For more information and to read the full report, click here and here.
Medscape
3 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Alcohol-Related Liver Disease Increases Sharply
Significant liver fibrosis associated with heavy alcohol use rose more than twofold over roughly the past two decades in the US despite alcohol use rates holding steady, which might be explained by risk factors for alcohol-related liver injury in the population, researchers said. Those most likely to be heavy drinkers are women, adults aged 45 years or older, those living in poverty, and those with metabolic syndrome, the data showed. 'Alcohol-related liver disease is the main cause of liver-related death, and these results are a major wake-up call to the dangers of drinking,' lead investigator Brian Lee, MD, MAS, hepatologist and liver transplant specialist with Keck Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. The study was published online on July 23 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology . Call for Increased Awareness To gauge trends in advanced alcohol-related liver disease among heavy drinkers, Lee and colleagues mined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning 1999-2020. The primary outcome was a high Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score (FIB-4 > 2.67 for those aged 65 years or younger and > 3.25 for those older than 65 years), which has previously been linked to a 25-fold higher risk for liver-related death. People with hepatitis B or C were excluded. Among 44,628 adults, 2474 were heavy drinkers — defined as at least 20 g/d for women and 30 g/d for men in the prior year. Among heavy drinkers, the prevalence of high FIB-4 — a marker of advanced liver scarring — increased more than twofold over time, from 1.8% in 1999-2004 to 4.3% in 2013-2020, vs an increase of 0.8%-1.4% among non-heavy drinkers. Notably, average alcohol intake stayed the same during the study period, the researchers said. Among heavy drinkers, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome rose from 26.4% in 1999-2004 to 37.6% in 2013-2020, the mean age increased, and a greater proportion was women or living in poverty — factors that can amplify susceptibility to alcohol's liver effects. Supplementary analyses restricting the cohort to adults aged 35-65 years or to pre-pandemic years (1999-2018) confirmed the same upward trends, with significant liver scarring tripling over 20 years. Limitations cited by the authors include the cross-sectional design of NHANES and reliance on self-reported alcohol intake, which can't capture fluctuations over time, and the use of FIB-4 as a surrogate for liver disease. Collectively, the data suggest that increasing morbidity and mortality due to alcohol-related liver disease 'may be related to a population more sensitized to the alcohol-related effects in the liver due to increased baseline risk factors,' the researchers wrote. The findings provide impetus for 'urgent awareness' of the contemporaneous risk for alcohol-related liver disease with heavy drinking and interventions to screen and treat risk factors, they added.
Medscape
01-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Fewer Teens Drinking, Unless They've Considered Suicide
TOPLINE: The prevalence of alcohol use and binge drinking declined among adolescents, but those with a recent history of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) showed more modest declines. METHODOLOGY: Researchers analyzed national survey data from 1991 to 2023 involving adolescents in grades 9 through 12 (n = 254,675) to examine temporal trends in use of alcohol and cannabis among those with and without a recent history of STB. Teens were asked if they had suicidal thoughts over the past year or if they had made any attempts at suicide, on the basis of which researchers defined two groups. Current alcohol use was defined as consumption of at least one drink on one or more days in the past 30 days; binge drinking was defined as the consumption of five or more drinks within a couple of hours on one or more days in the past 30 days. Current cannabis use was defined as use over the past 30 days. The trends in the prevalence rates of substance use were studied, as well as biennial percent change (BPC). TAKEAWAY: The prevalence of current alcohol use declined significantly from 2009 to 2023 among those with no STB (BPC, -5.41; P < .001) and 2007 onward among those with a history of suicidal ideation only (BPC, -3.51; P < .001) and suicide attempts (BPC, -2.82; P < .001). Teens without a recent history of STBs showed steeper declines in the prevalence of binge drinking than those with recent suicidal ideation or suicide attempts. Since 1995, the prevalence of cannabis use decreased significantly among adolescents without a recent history of STBs, but no significant change was observed for the other groups of teens. Among girls with a recent history of suicidal thoughts or attempts, the decline in alcohol use occurred at a more modest rate compared with the faster decline observed in girls without a recent history of STBs; and the rates of cannabis use plateaued since the 1990s for both. IN PRACTICE: '[These] findings suggest the need for continued screening and assessment of substance misuse among adolescents presenting with STBs, as well as the importance of developing targeted treatments to address these co-occurring concerns,' the authors wrote. SOURCE: This study was led by Shayna M. Cheek, PhD, of the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. It was published online on June 21 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. LIMITATIONS: The true prevalence rates of substance use may have been underestimated because the survey was conducted in schools, and STBs and substance use are linked to absenteeism. The timing of survey administration in 2021 was inconsistent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Demographic factors such as gender identity or poverty were not assessed. DISCLOSURES: This study did not receive any specific funding. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Weight loss drugs could give you more control over your drinking, say experts
Could taking popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs help curb alcohol use? Well, researchers say they already are. Taking semaglutide and liraglutide — a lesser-known active ingredient — medications for weight loss cut their consumption by nearly two-thirds in just four months. The findings are good news in the fight against alcohol use disorder. Excessive drinking can harm the liver and other organs, in addition to increasing the risk of several types of cancer. In the U.S., approximately 178,000 people die from excessive alcohol use each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 20,000 people die from alcohol-related cancers. 'GLP-1 analogues have been shown treat obesity and reduce the risk of multiple obesity-related complications. Now, the beneficial effects beyond obesity, such as on alcohol intake, are being actively studied, with some promising results,' Carel le Roux, a professor at University College Dublin, said in a statement. Le Roux is one of the co-author of the work, alongside colleagues in Ireland and Saudi Arabia. The research was published this month in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. To reach these conclusions, they examined more than 260 patients who were being treated for obesity at an Irish clinic. Of those, nearly 80 percent were women, 179 of whom drank alcohol regularly. Their average weight was over 200 pounds. However, just 188 of patients were tracked for an average of four months. None of them increased their alcohol intake and their average alcohol decreased from 11.3 units a week to just 4.3 units. A bottle of wine contains 10 units. Regular drinkers saw a reduction of 68 percent, which is comparable to a drug used to treat alcohol use disorder, the authors said. But, just how does it work? Well, more research needs to be done, but Le Roux said 'it is thought to involve curbing cravings for alcohol that arise in subcortical areas of the brain that are not under conscious control. Thus, patients report the effects are 'effortless.'' The semaglutide drugs mimic a hormone that targets appetite regulating areas of the brain. Millions of Americans use the drugs, which other researchers have found may come with surprising health benefits. One recent study has found semaglutide treats liver disease in two-thirds of patients. A study released on Tuesday found oral treatments can mimic the metabolic effects of gastric bypass surgery. 'GLP-1 analogues have been shown treat obesity and reduce the risk of multiple obesity-related complications. Now, the beneficial effects beyond obesity, such as on alcohol intake, are being actively studied, with some promising results,' Le Roux said.
