1. Alcohol use disorder in the COVID‐19 era: Position paper of the Italian Society on Alcohol (SIA)
- Author
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S Arico, Lisa Lungaro, Tiziana Fanucchi, Raffaella Rossin, Cristina Meneguzzi, Gianni Testino, Teo Vignoli, Luigi C. Bottaro, Patrizia Balbinot, Emanuele Scafato, Doda Renzetti, Pierluigi Allosio, Vito Campanile, Valentino Patussi, Fabio Caputo, Giacomo Caio, Livia Maccio, Davide Mioni, Michele Parisi, Giorgio Zoli, Claudia Gandin, Maria Francesca Amendola, and Aniello Baselice
- Subjects
Liver Cirrhosis ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Disease ,Alcohol use disorder ,Telehealth ,Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic ,Recurrence ,Ambulatory Care ,Drug Interactions ,infections ,Social isolation ,Societies, Medical ,Alcoholics Anonymous ,media_common ,Alcoholic ,Telemedicine ,Alcoholism ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,COVID‐19 infection ,Italy ,Original Article ,Disease Susceptibility ,medicine.symptom ,medicine.medical_specialty ,COVID-19 Vaccines ,media_common.quotation_subject ,alcohol use disorder ,NO ,Medical ,Intervention (counseling) ,mental disorders ,medicine ,Humans ,Psychiatry ,Immunosuppression Therapy ,Pharmacology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,business.industry ,Addiction ,COVID-19 ,Original Articles ,medicine.disease ,COVID-19 Drug Treatment ,COVID-19 infection ,Liver Transplantation ,Communicable Disease Control ,Position paper ,Societies ,business ,Delivery of Health Care - Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) first emerged in China in November 2019. Most governments have responded to the COVID‐19 pandemic by imposing a lockdown. Some evidence suggests that a period of isolation might have led to a spike in alcohol misuse, and in the case of patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), social isolation can favour lapse and relapse. The aim of our position paper is to provide specialists in the alcohol addiction field, in psychopharmacology, gastroenterology and in internal medicine, with appropriate tools to better manage patients with AUD and COVID‐19,considering some important topics: (a) the susceptibility of AUD patients to infection; (b) the pharmacological interaction between medications used to treat AUD and to treat COVID‐19; (c) the reorganization of the Centre for Alcohol Addiction Treatment for the management of AUD patients in the COVID‐19 era (group activities, telemedicine, outpatients treatment, alcohol‐related liver disease and liver transplantation, collecting samples); (d) AUD and SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination. Telemedicine/telehealth will undoubtedly be useful/practical tools even though it remains at an elementary level; the contribution of the family and of caregivers in the management of AUD patients will play a significant role; the multidisciplinary intervention involving experts in the treatment of AUD with specialists in the treatment of COVID‐19 disease will need implementation. Thus, the COVID‐19 pandemic is rapidly leading addiction specialists towards a new governance scenario of AUD, which necessarily needs an in‐depth reconsideration, focusing attention on a safe approach in combination with the efficacy of treatment., All health care systems need to be reorganized during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic, and also the CAATs in order to combine operator safety with patient safety and care. The multi‐disciplinary intervention involving experts in the treatment of AUD and ALD with specialists in the treatment of COVID‐19 disease will need implementation and the contribution of the family and of care‐givers in the management of AUD and ALD patients will play a significant role.
- Published
- 2021