TOPLINE:<\/h2>\n
Preexisting alcohol misuse, present in more than 58% of participants, was associated with increased Generalised Anxiety Disorder seven-item (GAD-7) scores during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, particularly affecting women and those with high perceived loneliness.<\/p>\n
METHODOLOGY:<\/h2>\n\n- Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal study using the online CONFINS cohort in France from April 2020 to January 2022 and analysed data from 1868 participants aged 18 years or older who were confined in France during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/li>\n
- The study utilised the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption score to assess alcohol misuse, and anxiety levels were measured using the GAD-7 scale.<\/li>\n
- Participants were followed up for a median duration of 46 weeks (range, 8-92 weeks), with 729 individuals completing at least one follow-up questionnaire.<\/li>\n
- Segmented linear mixed-effect models estimated the association between preexisting alcohol misuse and anxiety, adjusted for age, sex, and perceived loneliness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
TAKEAWAY:<\/h2>\n\n- Preexisting alcohol misuse was identified in 58.5% of participants, indicating a high prevalence in the study population.<\/li>\n
- Compared with women without alcohol misuse, those with alcohol misuse showed a significant increase of 0.31 points per trimester in GAD-7 scores starting at the second lockdown (P<\/em> < .001), with a significant difference (beta-coefficient [\u03b2], 0.30; P<\/em> = .014).<\/li>\n
- Among participants with high perceived loneliness, those with alcohol misuse showed significantly different anxiety evolution compared with those without (\u03b2, 0.59; P<\/em> = .011).<\/li>\n
- In participants with minimal-to-mild anxiety at baseline, alcohol misuse was significantly associated with perceived loneliness from the second lockdown (P<\/em> for interaction = .045).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
“We identified women and people with high perceived loneliness as groups particularly vulnerable to anxiety, with a worsening of their psychic state as the crisis persisted,” the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
“Our current findings suggest that certain groups may benefit now from targeted psychological support in primary care or in addiction centres. Implementing a simple non-intrusive question about perceived loneliness in clinical practice could help to screen those at the greatest risk for high anxiety,” they added.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
This study was led by Charline Galesne, University of Bordeaux College of Health Sciences, Bordeaux, France. It was published online on January 06, 2026, in BMJ Open<\/em>.<\/p>\nLIMITATIONS:<\/h2>\n
The use of a convenience sample recruited through online networks meant the results were not representative of the general French population. A high attrition rate was present, with only 39% of participants completing at least one follow-up questionnaire.<\/p>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
This study received funding from the University of Bordeaux, Kap Code, and the Kappa Sant\u00e9 CRO. Additional funding was received from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency, Public Health France, and the National Institute Against Cancer. One author received support through a PhD grant from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council.<\/p>\n
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOPLINE: Preexisting alcohol misuse, present in more than 58% of participants, was associated with increased Generalised Anxiety Disorder seven-item (GAD-7) scores during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, particularly affecting women and those with high perceived loneliness. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal study using the online CONFINS cohort in France from April 2020 to January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gty_221214_depressed_woman_sitting_800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
TAKEAWAY:<\/h2>\n\n- Preexisting alcohol misuse was identified in 58.5% of participants, indicating a high prevalence in the study population.<\/li>\n
- Compared with women without alcohol misuse, those with alcohol misuse showed a significant increase of 0.31 points per trimester in GAD-7 scores starting at the second lockdown (P<\/em> < .001), with a significant difference (beta-coefficient [\u03b2], 0.30; P<\/em> = .014).<\/li>\n
- Among participants with high perceived loneliness, those with alcohol misuse showed significantly different anxiety evolution compared with those without (\u03b2, 0.59; P<\/em> = .011).<\/li>\n
- In participants with minimal-to-mild anxiety at baseline, alcohol misuse was significantly associated with perceived loneliness from the second lockdown (P<\/em> for interaction = .045).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
“We identified women and people with high perceived loneliness as groups particularly vulnerable to anxiety, with a worsening of their psychic state as the crisis persisted,” the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
“Our current findings suggest that certain groups may benefit now from targeted psychological support in primary care or in addiction centres. Implementing a simple non-intrusive question about perceived loneliness in clinical practice could help to screen those at the greatest risk for high anxiety,” they added.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
This study was led by Charline Galesne, University of Bordeaux College of Health Sciences, Bordeaux, France. It was published online on January 06, 2026, in BMJ Open<\/em>.<\/p>\nLIMITATIONS:<\/h2>\n
The use of a convenience sample recruited through online networks meant the results were not representative of the general French population. A high attrition rate was present, with only 39% of participants completing at least one follow-up questionnaire.<\/p>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
This study received funding from the University of Bordeaux, Kap Code, and the Kappa Sant\u00e9 CRO. Additional funding was received from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency, Public Health France, and the National Institute Against Cancer. One author received support through a PhD grant from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council.<\/p>\n
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOPLINE: Preexisting alcohol misuse, present in more than 58% of participants, was associated with increased Generalised Anxiety Disorder seven-item (GAD-7) scores during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, particularly affecting women and those with high perceived loneliness. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal study using the online CONFINS cohort in France from April 2020 to January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gty_221214_depressed_woman_sitting_800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
IN PRACTICE:<\/h2>\n
“We identified women and people with high perceived loneliness as groups particularly vulnerable to anxiety, with a worsening of their psychic state as the crisis persisted,” the authors wrote.<\/p>\n
“Our current findings suggest that certain groups may benefit now from targeted psychological support in primary care or in addiction centres. Implementing a simple non-intrusive question about perceived loneliness in clinical practice could help to screen those at the greatest risk for high anxiety,” they added.<\/p>\n
SOURCE:<\/h2>\n
This study was led by Charline Galesne, University of Bordeaux College of Health Sciences, Bordeaux, France. It was published online on January 06, 2026, in BMJ Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n The use of a convenience sample recruited through online networks meant the results were not representative of the general French population. A high attrition rate was present, with only 39% of participants completing at least one follow-up questionnaire.<\/p>\n This study received funding from the University of Bordeaux, Kap Code, and the Kappa Sant\u00e9 CRO. Additional funding was received from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Health Agency, Public Health France, and the National Institute Against Cancer. One author received support through a PhD grant from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council.<\/p>\n This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n TOPLINE: Preexisting alcohol misuse, present in more than 58% of participants, was associated with increased Generalised Anxiety Disorder seven-item (GAD-7) scores during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, particularly affecting women and those with high perceived loneliness. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal study using the online CONFINS cohort in France from April 2020 to January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gty_221214_depressed_woman_sitting_800x450.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diyhaven858.wasmer.app\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LIMITATIONS:<\/h2>\n
DISCLOSURES:<\/h2>\n
\n
<<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"