Drinking away your loneliness: are lonely people more at risk for alcohol problems and dependence?

Maybe our RAD-blog readers are familiar with the popular opening scene from the movie “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. It starts with the charismatic protagonist emptying a glass of red wine while dramatically singing along to the lyrics: “all by myself don’t wanna be anymore…”.

She rarely stands up from the couch but only to check out her answering machine, which, in case the picture was not clear, coldly confirms that there are no messages. This scene might have made us spectators laugh and cry with Bridget, but besides the comedic effect, it might reveal something more concerning about the protagonist’s behaviour. In general, as reflected in the movie, there seems to be a common idea in society that feeling lonely could lead to abusing alcohol. Yet, is this idea actually based on facts? Or are we just watching too many romantic comedies? According to a large epidemiological study conducted by Wakabayashi et al. (2022) in Japan, there might be some truth to this. Scroll below Bridget’s picture for a summary of the key findings of the study.   CORE Wakabayashi et al. (2022) investigated the relationship between loneliness and increased problem drinking, or developing alcohol dependence, during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this aim, the researchers used a large one-year online survey. Participants were asked to report how lonely they felt at the beginning of the survey, as well as their drinking behaviour in the following year. The results suggest that greater loneliness in early 2021 was an independent risk factor for developing into a problem or dependent drinker one year later. Additionally, the authors observed a larger share of lonely people among non-drinkers than in low or medium-risk drinkers, but a smaller proportion than in high-risk drinkers. The findings suggest that extremes in drinking habits (i.e., either being abstinent or abusing alcohol) are more closely associated with higher feelings of loneliness than being a moderate drinker, i.e. people who might drink in social contexts. Wakabayashi’s (2022) study highlights how important it is to provide (social) support against loneliness as a preventive measure for alcohol dependence.   RESEARCH METHOD WHAT? The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between loneliness and developing problem drinking or alcohol dependence during the COVID-19 pandemic in adults over 20 years old (legal drinking age in Japan). WHO? 15,854 participants (ages 20-80 years old). HOW? A large internet-based cohort study was conducted in Japan as part of the Japan Society and New Tobacco Internet Survey (JASTIS). Two measurements were included in this investigation; the start was in February 2021, and the second and final measurement was in February 2022. The study included self-report questionnaires which examined demographic factors, loneliness, and (harmful) alcohol use, besides other health behaviours.   RESULTS

1. Among non-drinkers, 22% of participants reported high loneliness, which was greater than in low-risk (18%) and medium-risk drinkers (17%). In contrast, 32% of high-risk drinkers and 43% with probable alcohol dependence reported elevated feelings of loneliness.
2. Elevated loneliness at the beginning of the study was associated with changing from being first classified as not at risk to at-risk for problem drinking or dependence. This was observed even after considering participants‘ gender and marriage status, living arrangements or experiences of distress.

  DETAILS Wakabayashi, M., Sugiyama, Y., Takada, M., Kinjo, A., Iso, H., & Tabuchi, T. (2022). Loneliness and Increased Hazardous Alcohol Use: Data from a Nationwide Internet Survey with 1-Year Follow-Up. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912086   This sci-fly was written by Mili Rubio (Radboud University) for RAD-blog, the blog about smoking, alcohol, drugs, and diet.