Fears rise over effects of lockdown drinking

Tackling the harms caused by increased alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic could be seen for a generation, experts have warned.

Before the UK went into lockdown alcohol sales were up 67%, with many drinking at home in isolation, according to Baroness Ilora Finlay, chairwoman of the Commission on Alcohol Harms, and Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance.

"Now, as signs emerge of some control over new cases of COVID-19, it is increasingly clear that if we don't prepare for emerging from the pandemic, we will see the toll of increased alcohol harm for a generation," they wrote in a joint editorial published in The British Medical Journal.

They said the pandemic "has the potential to be an exemplar of our ambivalent relationship with alcohol and its consequences".

People with pre-existing problems with alcohol and those on the "brink" of dependence are at particular risk, they said, adding: "Dependence will be triggered by bereavement, job insecurity or troubled relationships.

"Before COVID-19, only one in five harmful and dependent drinkers got the help they need; the proportion will be even lower now."

The number of people with alcoholic liver disease was increasing before the crisis, and will rise further as a result, the experts predicted.

Alcohol treatment services will also see a surge in demand, they added. They also raised concerns that alcohol consumption is linked to domestic violence, highlighting the increased numbers of calls to domestic violence charities at the start of lockdown.

"Tackling alcohol harms is an integral part of the nation's recovery," they concluded.