Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Alcohol Consumption and Mental Health in Young People

PROJECT SUMMARY / Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, best characterized as a disaster, is unprecedented in its impact on individuals,societies, and the economy. Of special consideration is the effect of the pandemic on the psychological wellbeingand behavior of young people. Here, we propose leveraging the longitudinal, multi-site National Consortium onAlcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study (2012-2022) to investigate changes inwellbeing and behaviors, with a focus on alcohol use in response to the pandemic, in an established sample ofyoung people including moderate-heavy users and those at risk for alcohol use, and to identify risk and protectivefactors for distress in response to the pandemic. Using NCANDA, we are able to directly address researchobjectives of NOSI NOT-OD-20-097 to understand social, behavioral and economic impacts from containmentand mitigation efforts implemented to reduce spread of the COVID-19 disease, as well as downstream healthimpacts including substance use/abuse, and to determine risk and resiliency factors and outcomes.Unlike most research in this area, NCANDA includes neurobiological data critical to complement clinical andself-report data in understanding the complex and dynamic interactions leading up to and following a disaster.Also, with its accelerated longitudinal design and current age of participants spanning 17-28 years old, NCANDAis uniquely powered to disentangle age and pandemic related effects, unlike traditional same-age cohort designs.We propose supplementing the NCANDA project with a brief COVID-19 survey about alcohol use, mood, andother behaviors during the pandemic as well as COVID-19 exposure and pandemic-related distress,administered to participants in June 2020. To track long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey willbe re-administered in Winter 2020 and Summer 2021.By embedding this survey, time-linked to the pandemic, within the existing NCANDA dataset, we proposecharacterizing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use, mental health, and brain in young people(Aim 1) and to evaluate risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 pandemic-related distress (Aim 2). We proposeusing advanced analytics, including machine learning approaches, to identify a `signature' from the richinformation captured by neuroimaging, clinical and self-report data prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that predictsdistress versus resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. A machine-learning approach embraces thecomplexity of the COVID-19 pandemic-related influence and takes advantage of the multi-domains within theNCANDA dataset.The analysis proposed in this supplement will offer valuable longitudinal data in a well-characterized sample ofyoung people who are bridging developmental years into adulthood and that includes those at high risk for, orcurrent heavy users of, alcohol. Such information can be used to guide public health and intervention strategiesto benefit vulnerable young populations in the event of future disasters.