Self-Medicating With Alcohol During the COVID-19 Pandemic: COVID-19 Stresses Classify People Into Nondrinkers, Moderate Drinkers, and Binge Drinkers.

Objective

People may consume alcohol as a self-medicating strategy to cope with the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study evaluated COVID-19 stresses in distinguishing nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and binge drinkers as guided by the self-medication hypothesis.

Methods

Adults (N = 484) answered a question assessing drinker type (nondrinkers vs. moderate drinkers vs. binge drinkers) and completed the COVID-19 Stress Scales embodied by the subscales of danger and contamination stress, socioeconomic stress, xenophobia stress, traumatic stress, and compulsive checking stress.

Results

Discriminant function analysis using the set of five COVID-19 stress subscales as predictors statistically classified participants into nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and binge drinkers for the male and female samples. Afterward, 2 (gender: males vs. females) × 3 (drinker status: nondrinkers vs. moderate drinkers vs. binge drinkers) factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) scrutinized mean differences. Specifically, males compared to females experienced significantly higher socioeconomic stress, xenophobia stress, traumatic stress, and compulsive checking stress, but no gender difference was exhibited for danger and contamination stress. Furthermore, binge drinkers compared to nondrinkers reported significantly higher scores on all the COVID-19 stress subscales. Binge drinkers compared to moderate drinkers endorsed significantly higher scores on all the COVID-19 stress subscales. Moderate drinkers compared to nondrinkers exhibited significantly higher scores on all COVID-19 subscales except for danger and contamination stress.

Conclusions

The findings are consistent with the self-medication, such that people experiencing more COVID-19 pandemic stresses are more likely to consume alcohol in heavier quantities.