Several studies have analysed changes in alcohol consumption during the first few months of the pandemic, showing mixed results: while some show an overall decrease in alcohol levels compared with the pre-COVID period (Panagiotidis et al., 2020, Sallie et al., 2020, Wardell et al., 2020, Valente et al., 2021, Wang et al., 2021) -in some cases relying on objective measurements, such as wastewater analyses (Bade et al., 2021)-, others show an increase (Grigoletto et al., 2020, Rogers et al., 2020, Roberts et al., 2021). These contrasting results may be due to different pathways leading to alcohol consumption. On the one hand, alcohol consumption has been shown to be associated with positive affect and social gatherings (Cooper et al., 2016). From this perspective, a decrease in alcohol consumption could be explained by lower alcohol availability due to the closure of bars and restaurants (Roberts et al., 2021), as well as restrictions on social gatherings that kept “social drinking” -and, therefore, peer pressure to drink as well- at minimum levels. In turn, a possible increase could be viewed as alcohol acting as a coping mechanism (Rehm et al., 2020, Rogers et al., 2020) for increased feelings of loneliness and psychological distress.
