Substance use disorders and behavioral addictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19-related restrictions

COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China in December of 2019 and appeared in the United States 1 month later. Between the onset of the pandemic and January 13, 2021, over 92 million people have tested positive for the virus and over 1.9 million people have died globally. Virtually every country in the world has been impacted by this virus. Beginning in March 2020, many U.S. state governments enforced a quarantine to respond to the growing health crisis. Citizens were required to remain at home; schools, restaurants, and non-essential businesses were forced to close, and large gatherings were prohibited. Americans\u27 lives were transformed in a span of days as daily routines were interrupted and people were shuttered indoors. Mounting fear and unpredictability coupled with widespread unemployment and social isolation escalated anxiety and impacted the mental health of millions across the globe. Most (53%) U.S. adults reported that the coronavirus outbreak has had a negative impact on their mental health, including inducing or exacerbating use of alcohol, drugs, gambling and overeating as coping mechanisms. In this paper, we will examine substance use and addictive behaviors that have been used to manage the stress and uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the changing treatment landscape as therapy pivoted online and telemedicine became the norm

Which foods may be addictive? The roles of processing, fat content, and glycemic load.

We propose that highly processed foods share pharmacokinetic properties (e.g. concentrated dose, rapid rate of absorption) with drugs of abuse, due to the addition of fat and/or refined carbohydrates and the rapid rate the refined carbohydrates are absorbed into the system, indicated by glycemic load (GL). The current study provides preliminary evidence for the foods and food attributes implicated in addictive-like eating.Cross-sectional.University (Study One) and community (Study Two).120 undergraduates participated in Study One and 384 participants recruited through Amazon MTurk participated in Study Two.In Study One, participants (n = 120) completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) followed by a forced-choice task to indicate which foods, out of 35 foods varying in nutritional composition, were most associated with addictive-like eating behaviors. Using the same 35 foods, Study Two utilized hierarchical linear modeling to investigate which food attributes (e.g., fat grams) were related to addictive-like eating behavior (at level one) and explored the influence of individual differences for this association (at level two).In Study One, processed foods, higher in fat and GL, were most frequently associated with addictive-like eating behaviors. In Study Two, processing was a large, positive predictor for whether a food was associated with problematic, addictive-like eating behaviors. BMI and YFAS symptom count were small-to-moderate, positive predictors for this association. In a separate model, fat and GL were large, positive predictors of problematic food ratings. YFAS symptom count was a small, positive predictor of the relationship between GL and food ratings.The current study provides preliminary evidence that not all foods are equally implicated in addictive-like eating behavior, and highly processed foods, which may share characteristics with drugs of abuse (e.g. high dose, rapid rate of absorption) appear to be particularly associated with "food addiction.

A Longitudinal Preliminary Study of Addiction-Like Responses to Food and Alcohol Consumption Among Individuals Undergoing Weight Loss Surgery

Reductions in addiction-like food behaviors and increases in alcohol intake have been reported after weight loss surgery. However, no studies have tracked these measures in combination and prospectively. In this preliminary study, 27 participants underwent bariatric surgery (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) (n = 10) and sleeve gastrectomy (SG) (n = 6)), dietary weight loss (n = 6), or no treatment (n = 5). Participants were weighed, completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), and reported alcohol intake frequency before intervention and at 4 and 24 months after baseline. At 24 months, only the surgery group showed significant reductions in BMI. Between baseline and 24 months, YFAS scores decreased (p = .006) and alcohol intake increased in the surgery group (p = .005). Significant changes were not observed in the diet or no treatment groups

"Adiction" to sugar: myth or reality?

Popularmente se habla de “adictos a los dulces”, sin embargo, nunca se ha estudiado de manera sistemática la existencia de este tipo de adicción a un alimento. Este concepto es de gran importancia cuando en los países desarrollados surge una gran lucha legal contra las grandes cadenas de comida rápida por asegurar, los litigantes, que estas compañías manejan estrategias que favorecen a la adicción y que son responsables de una de las calamidades médicas mas importantes del momento que es la obesidad. La adicción se define como el uso compulsivo e incontrolable de una droga de adicción. Los expertos en el área describen 3 etapas en la adquisición y desarrollo de esta enfermedad. La primera que consiste en el escalamiento y “atracón” de la droga, seguido en una segunda instancia de la dependencia y por último, el deseo imperioso y recaída. A continuación presentaremos un modelo animal de dependencia al azúcar con características muy semejantes a los que se observan con las drogas de adicción y que nos señalan que los sistemas neurales para la conducta alimentaria son probablemente compartidos por las drogas de adicció[email protected] person with a “sweet tooth” has a weakness for sugar and is popularly considered addicted to sweets. However, so far there has been no systematic research on the existence of an “addiction” to a natural food. This concept of “addiction” to a food has gained great importance in developed countries where a fierce legal battle against the major fast food chains has started. It has been suggested that these companies use food strategies that promote an addictive behavior and could be responsible for one of the worst epidemics of our history, obesity. Experts in the field define drug addiction as a compulsive and uncontrollable use of a drug. They describe a series of stages in the acquisition and development of this disease. The first stage is bingeing and escalation of the drug use, followed by dependence, and a last stage determined by craving and relapse. In the present review, we will show a new animal model of sugar dependence with characteristics that mimic those of a drug of abuse. This research shows that foods, especially sugar, and drugs of addiction probably share the same neural systems