ArticlePloS one2024
Changes in substance use, recovery, and quality of life during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives on a massive scale. While the pandemic appeared to worsen mental health outcomes broadly, its effects on alcohol/substance use and recovery are unclear. Many studies convolved the sociopolitical unrest beginning in May 2020 with the pandemic. We assessed pandemic-related changes in substance use, recovery involvement, and quality of life among US adults at two specified time periods that isolated pandemic effects from potentially confounding sociopolitical factors.
objectivesWe tested the following hypotheses: the pandemic and consequent policies (1) increased use of alcohol and illicit substances in active users; (2) increased use of alcohol/substances among people in early recovery; (3) reduced participation in recovery activities among those in early recovery, and that (4) use amount and use events correlated with impulsivity in both groups and that (5) substance use and abstinence correlated with resilience.
methodsWe recruited 1,685 participants through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). We assessed demographics, quality of life, alcohol/substance use, recovery activities, and measures of impulsivity and resilience at two time points, pre-pandemic and (early) during-pandemic. Only n = 45 (Active Users; males n = 32) and n = 34 (Recovery; males n = 20) passed data quality checks and were included in the primary analyses.
resultsAmong Active Users, weekly alcohol consumption and days spent using alcohol and illicit substances decreased during the pandemic. Resilience negatively correlated with pandemic-related substance use in early recovering participants. Significant reduction in the quality of life was coincident with a trend of lower recovery activity participation (31% decline) during the pandemic.
conclusionsThe reduced alcohol/substance use and participation in recovery activities might be expected from conditions that promote social isolation. The high prevalence of low-quality data from MTurk cautions for careful use of online data sourcing.
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