COVID-19 impacts on drinking and mental health in emerging adults: Longitudinal changes and moderation by economic disruption and sex

Background: There are significant concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic may have negative effects on substance use and mental health, but most studies to date are cross-sectional. In a sample of emerging adults, over a two-week period during the pandemic, the current study examined: (1) changes in drinking-related outcomes, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder and (2) differences in changes by sex and income loss. The intra-pandemic measures were compared to pre-pandemic measures. Methods: Participants were 473 emerging adults (Mage = 23.84; 41.7% male) in an existing longitudinal study on alcohol misuse who were assessed from June 17 to July 1, 2020, during acute public health restrictions in Ontario, Canada. These intra-pandemic data were matched to participant pre-pandemic reports, collected an average of 5 months earlier. Assessments included validated measures of drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and mental health indicators. Results: Longitudinal analyses revealed significant decreases in heavy drinking and adverse alcohol consequences, with no moderation by sex or income loss, but with substantial heterogeneity in changes. Significant increases in continuous measures of depression and anxiety were present, both of which were moderated by sex. Females reported significantly larger increases in depression and anxiety. Income loss \u3e50% was significantly associated with increases in depression. Conclusions: During the initial phase of the pandemic, reductions in heavy drinking and alcohol consequences were present in this sample of emerging adults, perhaps due to restrictions on socializing. In contrast, there was an increase in internalizing symptoms, especially in females, highlighting disparities in the mental health impacts of the pandemic

Is talk cheap? Correspondence between self-attributions about changes in drinking and longitudinal changes in drinking during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic

Background: There are concerns that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may increase drinking, but most accounts to date are cross-sectional studies of self-attributions about alcohol-related impacts and the accuracy of those perceptions has not been investigated. The current study examined the correspondence between self-attributions of pandemic-related changes in drinking and longitudinally-measured changes in drinking and alcohol-related consequences in a sample of emerging adults. Methods: In an existing ongoing longitudinal study on alcohol misuse (≥1 heavy episodic drinking day/month) in emerging adults, 473 individuals (Mage = 23.8; 41.7% male) received a supplemental assessment from June 17th to July 1st, 2020, during public health restrictions in Ontario, Canada. These intrapandemic data were matched to the most recent assessment prior to the pandemic (~8 months earlier). Self-attributions about changes in drinking were assessed globally (i.e., increases/decreases/no change) and with higher resolution questions clarifying the magnitude of changes. Results: Global self-attributions about changes in drinking substantively paralleled longitudinal changes in weekly drinking days (DD). In the longitudinal data, individuals’ who self-reported increases in drinking exhibited significant increases; individuals’ who self-reported decreases exhibited significant decreases; and individuals who self-reported no change exhibited nonsignificant changes. Higher resolution items likewise revealed longitudinal patterns of weekly drinking that were substantively consistent with self-attributions. Heavy DD and alcohol-related consequences exhibited similar patterns, but only individuals who self-reported large increases in drinking exhibited increases on these outcomes. Individuals who reported large increases in drinking also exhibited significant increases in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Conclusions: Self-attributions about drinking closely corresponded to longitudinal changes in drinking, supporting the validity of self-attributions in population-level surveys, particularly in young adults. Notably, a subgroup was identified that exhibited pronounced increases for all alcohol-related outcomes and concurrent increases in internalizing psychopathology

Concurrent validity of the marijuana purchase task: a meta-analysis of trait-level cannabis demand and cannabis involvement.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Marijuana Purchase Task (MPT) is increasingly used to measure cannabis reinforcing value and has potential use for cannabis etiological and regulatory research. This meta-analysis sought to evaluate for the first time the MPT's concurrent validity in relation to cannabis involvement. METHODS: Electronic databases and pre-print repositories were searched for MPT studies that examined the cross-sectional relationship between frequency and quantity of cannabis use, problems, dependence, and five MPT indicators: intensity (i.e. unrestricted consumption), O (i.e. maximum consumption), P (i.e. price at which demand becomes elastic), breakpoint (i.e. first price at which consumption ceases), and elasticity (i.e. sensitivity to rising costs). Random effects meta-analyses of cross-sectional effect sizes were conducted, with Q tests for examining differences by cannabis variables, meta-regression to test quantitative moderators, and publication bias assessment. Moderators included sex, number of MPT prices, variable transformations, and year of publication. Populations included community and clinical samples. RESULTS: The searches yielded 14 studies (n = 4077, median % females: 44.8%: weighted average age = 29.08 [SD = 6.82]), published between 2015 and 2022. Intensity, O , and elasticity showed the most robust concurrent validity (|r's| = 0.147-325, ps < 0.014) with the largest significant effect sizes for quantity (|r| intensity = 0.325) and cannabis dependence (|r| O  = 0.320, |r| intensity = 0.305, |r| elasticity = 0.303). Higher proportion of males was associated with increased estimates for elasticity-quantity and P -problems. Higher number of MPT prices significantly altered magnitude of effects sizes for P and problems, suggesting biased estimations if excessively low prices are considered. Methodological quality was generally good, and minimal evidence of publication bias was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The marijuana purchase task presents adequate concurrent validity to measure cannabis demand, most robustly for intensity, O , and elasticity. Moderating effects by sex suggest potentially meaningful sex differences in the reinforcing value of cannabis

The COVID-19 Pandemic Attenuated Ongoing Declines in Drinking Trajectories in Emerging Adults: A Longitudinal Behavioral Economic Analysis

Background: Longitudinal research on COVID-19 impacts on drinking is scarce and largely restricted to comparing drinking levels before and after the introduction of COVID mitigation measures. This brief snapshot of behavior ignores the extended pre-COVID drinking trajectory, which may be decreasing increasing, or remaining stable over time. Behavioral economics predicts that pandemic-related constraints on behavioral alternatives to alcohol and drug use, and decreased constraints on alcohol, may result in increases in drinking at later stages of the pandemic. Therefore, the current study characterized drinking trajectories among emerging adults before and during the pandemic and investigated time-invariant demographic predictors and time-varying behavioral economic predictors of trajectories of drinking and behavioral economic variables. Methods: A pandemic-focused survey was distributed between May 15 and June 29, 2020 to emerging adults participating in an ongoing longitudinal study involving pre-COVID data collection every four months. Participants with four pre-COVID assessments were included in the current study (N = 312, ages 21.5-24 years; 65.1% female). Results: Linear piecewise models best fit the drinking days and drinks per week data, suggesting a pandemic-related disruption of ongoing drinking trajectories. After controlling for all other time-invariant predictors, lower environmental reward was associated with greater increases in heavy drinking days and income loss was associated with lower drinking days, drinks, and heavy drinking days per week. In parallel LGCM models, increases in alcohol demand indices were generally associated with increases in drinking from the pre- to the post-COVID onset timepoint. Conclusions: The results suggest that the pandemic attenuated ongoing declines in drinking trajectories and highlight the value of examining trajectories to characterize COVID-19-related effects. Behavioral economic measures of environmental and alcohol reward may be useful predictors of changing alcohol use patterns, particularly in the context of emergent public health crises