‘LAST COPING MECHANISM’

Pandemic Drinking Is Causing Massive Spike in Liver Disease, Says Report

One expert said adults under 40 seem to be being hit particularly hard by a feeling of hopelessness.

Hospitals are reporting huge spikes in liver disease as a result of people drinking more during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. There are no national figures available on admission for alcoholic liver disease—but the numbers coming out of individual hospitals look very worrying. For example, Keck Hospital of the University of Southern California has recorded a 30 percent increase from 2019, according to the report, and specialists at hospitals affiliated with the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Harvard University and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City told the Times that admissions have leapt 50 percent since March, when the pandemic took hold. Haripriya Maddur, a hepatologist at Northwestern Medicine, said adults under 40 seem to be being hit particularly hard by a feeling of hopelessness during the pandemic. “They have mouths to feed and bills to pay, but no job,” she said, “So they turn to booze as the last coping mechanism remaining.”