Shannon Lange, Huan Jiang, Laura Miščikienė, Alexander Tran, Mindaugas Štelemėkas, Jürgen Rehm
Background: The national lockdowns that occurred all over the world in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been found to have impacted alcohol use. The aim was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19-related national lockdowns on alcohol-related traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities in Lithuania.
Methods: Using monthly data from the Lithuanian Road Police Service for January 2004 to December 2022, we performed interrupted time-series analyses using a generalized additive model to evaluate the impact of COVID-19-related national lockdowns on alcohol-related traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities. In Lithuania, the COVID-19-related lockdowns occurred from March 2020 to June 2020 and from November 2020 to June 2021.
Results: Although overall rates for traffic collisions and injuries decreased during the COVID-19-related lockdowns in Lithuania, these lockdowns were associated with a 3.21% (95% CI: 1.19%, 5.23%) increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic collisions and a 2.46% (95% CI: 0.12%, 4.80%) increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic injuries. The association between the lockdowns and alcohol-related traffic fatalities was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The COVID-19-related national lockdowns in Lithuania were associated with a decrease in the overall rate of traffic collisions and injuries, but an increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic collisions and injuries.
{"title":"The impact of COVID-19-related national lockdowns on alcohol-related traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities in Lithuania.","authors":"Shannon Lange, Huan Jiang, Laura Miščikienė, Alexander Tran, Mindaugas Štelemėkas, Jürgen Rehm","doi":"10.1111/acer.15429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.15429","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The national lockdowns that occurred all over the world in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been found to have impacted alcohol use. The aim was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19-related national lockdowns on alcohol-related traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities in Lithuania.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using monthly data from the Lithuanian Road Police Service for January 2004 to December 2022, we performed interrupted time-series analyses using a generalized additive model to evaluate the impact of COVID-19-related national lockdowns on alcohol-related traffic collisions, injuries, and fatalities. In Lithuania, the COVID-19-related lockdowns occurred from March 2020 to June 2020 and from November 2020 to June 2021.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Although overall rates for traffic collisions and injuries decreased during the COVID-19-related lockdowns in Lithuania, these lockdowns were associated with a 3.21% (95% CI: 1.19%, 5.23%) increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic collisions and a 2.46% (95% CI: 0.12%, 4.80%) increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic injuries. The association between the lockdowns and alcohol-related traffic fatalities was not statistically significant.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The COVID-19-related national lockdowns in Lithuania were associated with a decrease in the overall rate of traffic collisions and injuries, but an increase in the relative proportion of alcohol-related traffic collisions and injuries.</p>","PeriodicalId":72145,"journal":{"name":"Alcohol (Hanover, York County, Pa.)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142047637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marie A Doyle, Gregory J Salimando, Megan E Altemus, Justin K Badt, Michelle N Bedenbaugh, Alexander S Vardy, Danielle N Adank, Anika S Park, Danny G Winder
Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic, relapsing disease, highly comorbid with anxiety and depression. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and Crh+ neurons in this region play a key role in chronic ethanol-induced increases in volitional intake, hypothesized to be driven by emergent negative affective behaviors. Excitatory N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are a major target of ethanol, and chronic ethanol exposure has been shown to regulate NMDAR function and expression. Specifically, GluN2D subunit-containing NMDARs have emerged as a target of interest due to their limited distribution and potential roles in affective behavior.
Methods: Male and female mice underwent a home cage chronic drinking forced abstinence model (CDFA) to assess the impact of 1 day or 2 weeks of ethanol abstinence on BNST synaptic transmission and BNST Grin gene expression. Constitutive and conditional BNST GluN2D knockout mice were used to assess the impact of GluN2D deletion on continuous access ethanol intake as well as negative affect behaviors, using the open field, elevated zero maze, and forced swim tasks.
Results: We report here that excitatory transmission undergoes time-dependent upregulation in BNST Crh+ cells. Further, knockdown of dorsal BNST (dBNST) GluN2D expression significantly decreases ethanol intake in female, but not male, mice. While BNST Grin2b expression was significantly increased in protracted abstinence following CDFA, no differences in Grin2d expression were observed in the dBNST or dBNST Crh+ neurons. Finally, we find that deletion of GluN2D fails to alter negative affect in ethanol-naïve female mice.
Conclusions: These data suggest a role for BNST GluN2D-containing NMDARs in ethanol drinking but not ethanol abstinence, highlighting sex differences and behavioral specificity. Overall, these data further suggest roles for BNST synaptic signaling in volitional ethanol intake that are partially independent of actions on affective behavior.
{"title":"BNST GluN2D-containing NMDARs contribute to ethanol intake but not negative affective behaviors in female mice.","authors":"Marie A Doyle, Gregory J Salimando, Megan E Altemus, Justin K Badt, Michelle N Bedenbaugh, Alexander S Vardy, Danielle N Adank, Anika S Park, Danny G Winder","doi":"10.1111/acer.15432","DOIUrl":"10.1111/acer.15432","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a chronic, relapsing disease, highly comorbid with anxiety and depression. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and Crh+ neurons in this region play a key role in chronic ethanol-induced increases in volitional intake, hypothesized to be driven by emergent negative affective behaviors. Excitatory N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are a major target of ethanol, and chronic ethanol exposure has been shown to regulate NMDAR function and expression. Specifically, GluN2D subunit-containing NMDARs have emerged as a target of interest due to their limited distribution and potential roles in affective behavior.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Male and female mice underwent a home cage chronic drinking forced abstinence model (CDFA) to assess the impact of 1 day or 2 weeks of ethanol abstinence on BNST synaptic transmission and BNST Grin gene expression. Constitutive and conditional BNST GluN2D knockout mice were used to assess the impact of GluN2D deletion on continuous access ethanol intake as well as negative affect behaviors, using the open field, elevated zero maze, and forced swim tasks.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We report here that excitatory transmission undergoes time-dependent upregulation in BNST Crh+ cells. Further, knockdown of dorsal BNST (dBNST) GluN2D expression significantly decreases ethanol intake in female, but not male, mice. While BNST Grin2b expression was significantly increased in protracted abstinence following CDFA, no differences in Grin2d expression were observed in the dBNST or dBNST Crh+ neurons. Finally, we find that deletion of GluN2D fails to alter negative affect in ethanol-naïve female mice.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These data suggest a role for BNST GluN2D-containing NMDARs in ethanol drinking but not ethanol abstinence, highlighting sex differences and behavioral specificity. Overall, these data further suggest roles for BNST synaptic signaling in volitional ethanol intake that are partially independent of actions on affective behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":72145,"journal":{"name":"Alcohol (Hanover, York County, Pa.)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142047636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}