Pre-pandemic psychiatric disorders, disease specific polygenic scores, and alcohol consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND

Pre-pandemic psychiatric disorders have been associated with elevated alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about associated morbidity and mortality; however, insight into the mechanisms is lacking.

METHODS

In this prospective cohort study with multiple follow-ups of 27,208 participants from the Danish Blood Donor Study, the potential genetic influence on the associations of pre-pandemic alcohol use disorders (AUD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) with pandemic alcohol consumption patterns was assessed in Poisson regression models, using polygenic scores (PGS). Information on pre-pandemic psychiatric disorders was obtained from Danish national health registers, while information on alcohol consumption was obtained through questionnaires.

RESULTS

Adjustment for PGSs did not impact the association of pre-pandemic AUD with alcohol consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic at any time points (e.g., unadjusted [B = 0.68; 95 %CI: 0.52; 0.84] vs. adjusted for AUD PGS [B = 0.66; 95 %CI: 0.50; 0.82]. However, higher AUD PGSs were associated with higher alcohol consumption among individuals without pre-pandemic AUD. Pre-pandemic MDD was unrelated to alcohol consumption patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in all analyses.

CONCLUSION

Genetic liability to AUD was associated with increased alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic but only among individuals without pre-pandemic AUD.