Results from a phase II clinical trial indicate that psilocybin, a hallucinogenic chemical found in certain mushrooms of the genus Psiloybe, may benefit individuals with cancer and major depression.
Newswise —
If you feel overworked and stressed, you’ll be less committed to your job and perform less well. Many companies are aware of this problem and, therefore, spend money on professionals to look after the mental health of their employees. And yet there’s a much simpler and more cost-effective way to increase satisfaction and efficiency: In a one-week study, just 30 minutes less social media use per day improved the mental health, job satisfaction and commitment of the participants. Associate Professor Julia Brailovskaia and her team from the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the German Center for Mental Health published their findings in the journal Behaviour & Information Technology on December 8, 2023.
Positive emotions that are lacking in real life
Social media have become an integral part of many people’s lives, not just the younger generation. A number of studies have explored the effects of intensive social media use: Some have shown that engaging with social media is a mood booster, others that it has a negative impact on mental health and causes users to fear missing out on something important happening in their network when they aren’t online – a phenomenon referred to as FoMO (acronym of Fear of Missing Out).
“We suspect that people tend to use social networks to generate positive emotions that they’re missing in their everyday working lives, especially when they are feeling overworked,” explains Julia Brailovskaia. “In addition, some platforms such as LinkedIn also offer the opportunity to look for new jobs if you’re unhappy with your current role.” In the short-term, escaping from reality into the world of social networks may indeed improve your mood; but in the long-term, it can lead to addictive behavior that has the opposite effect.
Effects evident after one week
The team launched an experiment to explore these correlations. A total of 166 people took part, all of whom worked either part-time or full-time in a range of sectors and spent at least 35 minutes a day on non-work-related social media use. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group didn’t change their social media habits. The other group reduced the time spent on social networks by 30 minutes a day for seven days. The participants completed various questionnaires online before the start of the experiment, the day after it began and one week later, providing information about their workload, job satisfaction, commitment, mental health, stress levels, FoMO and behaviors indicating addictive social media use.
“Even after this short period of time, we found that the group that spent 30 minutes less a day on social media significantly improved their job satisfaction and mental health,” points out Julia Brailovskaia. “The participants in this group felt less overworked and were more committed on the job than the control group.” Their sense of FoMO decreased likewise. The effects lasted for at least a week after the end of the experiment and even increased in some cases during this time. The participants who’d reduced their daily social media use voluntarily continued to do so even after a week.
More time to do a good job and for colleagues
The researchers assume that, by reducing their social media use, the participants had more time to do their job, which meant they felt less overworked, and also suffered less from divided attention. “Our brains can’t cope well with constant distraction from a task,” explains Julia Brailovskaia. “People who frequently stop what they’re doing in order to catch up on their social media feed find it more difficult to focus on their work and they achieve poorer results.” In addition, time spent on social media may prevent people from interacting with their colleagues in real life, which can lead to alienation. Reducing time spent on social media could reduce this effect.
The results of the study are in line with previous research done by the group, which showed that reducing daily consumption by as little as 20 to 30 minutes reduced depressive symptoms and improved mental health. “Reducing the amount of time spent on social media each day could be a useful addition to business coaching training, mental health programs and psychotherapeutic interventions,” concludes Julia Brailovskaia.
Newswise — An online treatment for insomnia may improve both sleep and problem drinking patterns in people who drink heavily, according to a study in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research. Researchers found that heavy drinkers who received web-based cognitive behavioral therapy designed to treat their insomnia had greater improvement in sleep and drinking behaviors compared to people who were given access to online education to improve their sleep. This is the first study to show that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia can lead to significant reductions in alcohol consumption among heavy drinkers. The findings support the use of self-administered online health interventions, which may help overcome barriers to treatment for people at high risk.
The study compared the sleep and drinking outcomes of two groups of heavy drinkers with insomnia. One group was given a validated, interactive, online cognitive behavioral therapy program, while a control group received unlimited access to online educational resources to address insomnia.
Both groups experienced improvements in sleep and drinking, but the group using the digital cognitive behavioral intervention, called SHUTi, saw greater improvement. Following the nine-week intervention, the digital cognitive behavioral program participants showed a more pronounced decrease in alcohol consumption measures over time compared to the control group. SHUTi users reported significantly lower insomnia severity and significantly improved sleep quality compared to participants in the control group and maintained lower insomnia severity scores at six months. At six months, the sleep quality scores were the same for both groups due to improvements in sleep quality in the control group.
Researchers note that SHUTi is the first digital cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for insomnia to result in reductions in alcohol consumption among people with hazardous drinking behaviors and insomnia. Digital cognitive behavioral therapy has the potential to improve access to treatment for people with alcohol use disorder who may not otherwise seek treatment due to barriers such as stigma or lack of transportation. Women, in particular, are more likely to receive treatment for alcohol problems in alternative settings and show a stronger association between poor sleep quality and alcohol-related problems.
The SHUTi program used for the study is entirely online and automated and provides individualized feedback based on participants’ sleep data and other self-reported information. Participants complete a series of interactive modules based on principles of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. The study, conducted from September 2020 to September 2021, included 71 men and women ages 21 to 50. Participants were considered to be hazardous drinkers who experienced insomnia for three or more nights per week for the past three months.
The researchers recommend further studies with a greater number of and more diverse participants to identify whether outcomes are influenced by other factors, such as marriage, caregiving, education status, sleep aid use, age, sex, and circadian preferences.
Effects of a digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on sleep and alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers: A randomized pilot study. J. Verlinden, M. Moloney, O. Vsevolozhskaya, L. Ritterband, F. Winkel, J. Weafer
ACER 5687.R2
Newswise — Addiction is one of society’s most misunderstood and rebuked health conditions. That stigma discourages many people from seeking treatment for substance dependence, according to a new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Research on stigma toward people with substance use disorder (SUD) is relatively sparse, the report adds.
“Characterizing the nature and etiology of SUD stigma is critical for developing tailored and effective interventions to combat it,” wrote psychological scientist Anne C. Krendl and sociologist Brea L. Perry of Indiana University, Bloomington, in their review.
Substance dependence has become a national health threat. Drug overdose rates in the United States have climbed over the past 20 years, driven primarily by opioid and stimulant use. In a recent national survey, nearly 66 million Americans reported abusing alcohol over a 1-month period, and about 20 million reported using illegal narcotics and prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons.
Researchers measure stigma around both SUD and mental illness along three dimensions:
Overall, stigma research has focused primarily on mental health problems, the authors wrote. But studies indicate that SUD is typically more stigmatized than mental illness, in part because substance use is viewed as more controllable. (Schizophrenia, however, elicits similar levels of stigma as does SUD, research shows.)
Experiments that have framed SUD as uncontrollable show some reduction in stigma, but that may have the unintended consequence of casting substance dependence as insurmountable, the authors wrote.
Studies of public stigma indicate that Americans express concerns about interacting with substance users, although that resistance ebbs toward individuals described as being in active recovery. People with SUD may face housing discrimination, reduced employment opportunities, and lowered income.
Studies also show variability in stigma among different types of substance dependence. For example, individuals who abuse illegal drugs such as heroin are perceived as more dangerous than those who abuse alcohol or prescription opioids.
The consequences of public stigma, along with structural and self-stigma, discourage individuals with SUD from seeking and persisting with treatment, research suggests.
Some studies have identified strategies aimed at reducing stigma, such as education designed to counter inaccurate beliefs, but those approaches have shown limited progress. This calls for researchers to develop stronger methods for reducing stigma. Strategies may include emphasizing an individual’s recovery and the reduction of structural treatment barriers, such as inadequate insurance coverage and lack of access to evidence-based interventions.
In a commentary accompanying the report, APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Stephen P. Hinshaw, a distinguished professor at University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, points to successful treatments as possibly the “ultimate game-changer” in stigma reduction. Hinshaw, whose work focuses on developmental psychopathology and mental illness stigma, notes that HIV/AIDS received massive stigma before antiretroviral therapies transformed it from a terminal to survivable condition.
In another commentary, APS Fellow Kenneth J. Sher, a University of Missouri scholar renowned for his work on alcohol use disorder, calls for a more nuanced view of SUD stigma. Terms such as SUD are “grossly nonspecific” and may lead to a broadened array of stereotypes, Sher said. The U.S. National Institutes of Health has proposed developing alternatives to SUD-related terminology such as “addict” and “abuser,” but research should focus on the effects of that relabeling on stigma, he asserted.
The Association for Psychological Science is the home of thousands of leading psychological science researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students from around the world. APS is dedicated to advancing scientific psychology across disciplinary and geographic borders and committed to disseminating psychological science to the public, incentivizing global collaboration among researchers, catalyzing the further development of psychological science, and promoting the application of psychological science to public policy.
Newswise — If you thought blurry eyes were to blame for the “beer goggles” phenomenon, think again.
Scientists from the University of Portsmouth have tested the popular theory that people are more likely to find someone attractive while drunk, because their faces appear more symmetrical.
The term “beer goggles” has been used for decades to describe when a person finds themselves sexually attracted to someone while intoxicated, but not sober.
One possible explanation for the effect is that alcohol impairs the drinker’s ability to detect facial asymmetry, thus making potential partners more visually appealing.
Existing research has shown that a part of what makes people attractive to others is how well both sides of their face match. The thinking goes, the more symmetry the better the gene pool. But when alcohol is introduced, it’s thought a person is less likely to notice if the faces around them are non-symmetrical.
However, a new experiment found that while alcohol did impair face symmetry detection, it had no influence on facial attractiveness judgements.
Dr Alistair Harvey from the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology, said: “Alcohol is a strong predictor of sexual behaviour, often consumed before or during dates.
“There are a range of possible reasons why alcohol drinkers are more inclined to engage in sex, including a lack of inhibition, heightened expectations, personality traits, and the beer goggles effect.
“Due to the limited research on this topic, we ran a field experiment to help determine why people often experience unexpected – and regretted – sexual escapades after having one too many.”
To gather the results, the team visited a local pub in the Portsmouth area. 99 men and women volunteered for the study, ranging in age from 18 to 62 years old.
They were asked to rate 18 individual faces for attractiveness and symmetry. Each type of rating was given twice, once for faces showing an enhanced asymmetry, and again for the same faces in their natural form. Participants then judged which of two same-face versions (one normal, the other perfectly symmetrised) was more attractive and, in the final task, more symmetrical.
The study used a robust procedure, taking ratings of individual faces in addition to the usual binary approach where participants select the more attractive or symmetrical face in a pair.
As predicted, heavily intoxicated individuals were less able to distinguish natural from perfectly symmetrised faces than more sober drinkers. But the more drunk viewers did not rate the faces as being any more attractive.
As expected, both male and female participants rated natural faces as being more attractive than the ones which were doctored to look wonky. But, surprisingly, this bias was stronger among women.
The paper, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, says one possible explanation to the findings could be that attractiveness depends on many factors that simply swamp the small effects of face symmetry.
“We don’t deny the existence of a “beer goggles” effect”, added Dr Harvey.
“But we suspect it would be more easily detectable when using live models for an experiment, instead of static photographs. Images conceal a range of important visual criteria for attractiveness, including build, body shape, height, expression, and clothing.
“Therefore, further research is needed to find the missing piece to the puzzle.”
Notes to Editors
The paper, ‘Impaired face symmetry detection under alcohol, but no ‘beer goggles’ effect’, is available to view online here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02698811231215592
About the University of Portsmouth
For more information:
Robyn Montague, Senior Media Officer, University of Portsmouth, Tel: 07980419979, Email: [email protected]
Newswise — As the old song says, there’s no place like home for the holidays.
That is, unless you’re home on the couch with a fever, cough or sick child, while everyone else is out decking the halls, dashing through the snow, spinning the dreidl or playing reindeer games.
Or even worse, you could get stuck spending a not-so-silent night in the emergency department, or ringing in the new year in a hospital bed.
So, as the holiday season gets into high gear, now’s the time to get yourself and those you love vaccinated against diseases that tend to spike in winter.
Cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV have already started to rise, but it’s not too late to get vaccinated and take other steps to protect yourself.
Three doctors from across University of Michigan Health – Del DeHart, M.D., who directs infection prevention at UM Health-West, Preeti Malani, M.D., who specializes in infectious diseases and the care of older adults at the main Michigan Medicine campus, and Steve W. Martin, M.D., who focuses on intensive care for very sick children at U-M Health at Sparrow Children’s Hospital – weigh in on the discussion to keep you safe.
Watch the video from a recent live vaccine discussion to hear their sage advice.
Three different brands – made by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax – have been available since September.
All of them can really make a difference in boosting your ability to fight off a new coronavirus infection – even if you had COVID-19 this past summer.
But less than a quarter of Americans have gotten one yet.
Go to vaccines.gov to find a dose near you or ask if you can do a walk-in vaccination at the pharmacy counter the next time you’re there.
The updated COVID vaccines were developed to address the newest strains of the virus that has been plaguing the world for nearly four years.
Said DeHart, “The strains are changing over time, but the seriousness of the illness hasn’t changed dramatically. These vaccines are very effective for preventing critical illness and serious illness.”
Malani notes that in addition to making just about anyone miserable for days or weeks, the flu can lead to severe, life-threatening illness in older adults.
But nearly a third of them still haven’t gotten this year’s updated flu vaccine.
If you know one of them, “Give them a call and remind them to get their flu vaccine, especially before the holidays,” she said.
Martin says the flu vaccine is also especially important for young children and anyone with asthma.
“With travel we become one big melting pot,” at the holidays, which helps flu spread quickly, Malani added.
“Don’t bring it home and don’t take it with you. Having a vaccination really helps protect those around you, not just you.”
New options to prevent respiratory syncytial virus just became available this year for all three groups.
“As a pediatric critical care physician, I meet children and families on their worst days. These vaccines can prevent thousands of those worst days in the United States every year,” said Martin, who notes that in 2022, RSV cases in children were twice as high as they’d been in the past 10 years.
More than 1,000 infants die of RSV each year, and those who survive have a higher risk of asthma later in life.
The new RSV options that can be given between the 32nd and 36th week of pregnancy, or the first 8 months of life, have been shown to reduce severe disease by as much as 80%, Martin notes.
But RSV isn’t just a problem for kids – it leads to the deaths of more than 10,000 older adults a year, Malani says.
People over 60 who have health issues or are around young children should especially seek vaccination right away.
The pneumococcal vaccines aren’t as well known as the COVID and flu shots, but they can really help protect against pneumonia in older adults, adults with certain immune-compromising conditions, and teens.
And in infants and toddlers, they can protect against life-threatening body-wide infections as well as less-serious, but still miserable, ear and lung infections.
“Talk to a health care provider who can make a specific recommendation about what formulation and schedule to get,” said Malani.
All three experts say it loud and clear: Don’t let “fear of missing out” on holiday events tempt you to go out anyway.
You could endanger vulnerable people you care about.
The illness, also called pertussis, can land a baby in the hospital or even kill them.
Infants often get it from a teen or adult whose last dose of vaccine was too long ago to prevent them from spreading the virus.
Dehart says many people don’t even know they’re sick when they spread it.
Every adult should get a booster dose of the vaccine that protects against pertussis every 10 years.
It’s bundled with vaccines against two other diseases and called the Tdap vaccine.
Every child should get four doses by the time they’re a year and a half old, and another booster when they’re 11 or 12.
The rule of thumb is that a full immune response to a vaccine takes two weeks, though partial protection begins before that, Malani says.
“If there’s a big event in your life – or simply the holidays and getting together with family,” get vaccinated as soon as possible, she said.
With many viruses circulating at once, putting on a mask on airplanes, at the mall, during worship services, or at your child’s school concert, could protect you from getting sick.
Cutting back on unmasked exposures to crowds in the days before you visit a new baby or a vulnerable adult could also help you avoid giving a holiday “gift” no one wants.
If you’re hosting a gathering or visiting others, improve air flow and filtration by keeping a window partly open, running the fan on the heating system or using an air purifier.
Most pharmacies offer at least some vaccinations, though you may need to check with your insurance plan to make sure they will cover the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine at the pharmacy you want to go to.
If you don’t have insurance, use the vaccines.gov site or call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to find a place that’s offering no-cost vaccines through the Bridge Access Program.
Your city or county public health department is also likely a good source, and your regular primary care clinic should offer most vaccines.
Except in rare cases, you should not have to pay for any vaccine that’s officially recommended for you or your child.
Said Dehart, “There’s no reason not to get them together if you’re taking the time to go to the pharmacy. It saves a lot of time and it’s perfectly safe to get them together.”
In fact, there’s some evidence suggesting getting two vaccines at the same time can increase the effectiveness of both.
Home tests for COVID-19 and new home tests for flu can help you know what’s making you or your child sick – and help you know if you or your teen could get treatment with Paxlovid for COVID-19, or you or your child could get Tamiflu for flu.
Both are prescription medicines that can reduce the risk of severe illness.
COVID tests are available for free by mail again.
You may also be able to get a free combination flu and COVID rapid test kit sent to you by the federal government, depending on your insurance status.
And everyone who has a positive test for flu or COVID can access free telehealth-based help with getting a prescription for antiviral medications.
There’s no home test for RSV.
But doctors also have access to higher-accuracy rapid tests for flu and RSV now, as well as “gold standard” PCR tests for COVID-19.
In addition to helping you know what you or your child has, tests can guide you on how long to stay away from other people or wear a mask in public.
Testing can also help you avoid getting antibiotics for illnesses caused by viruses.
After all, they won’t work, and using them could cause bacteria in your system to evolve and develop resistance to the drugs so they won’t work if you need them in the future.
The misinformation about multiple vaccines has spread far and wide, so don’t take anything you see on social media or hear in a conversation as the truth without checking out official sources.
Seek out good sources of information by talking to your pharmacist, doctor or nurse practitioner, or by checking the vaccination websites run by the CDC and physician organizations such as the American Geriatrics Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Newswise — In the past ten years, the percentage of Americans who use medical marijuana has more than doubled as state-level legalization becomes increasingly common. But despite its prevalence as a medication, the full health effects of cannabis remain unknown, especially for specific populations—such as pregnant people—that might be especially at risk of health complications.
Now, in a large study of more than 9,000 pregnant people from across the U.S., researchers at University of Utah Health have found that cannabis exposure during pregnancy is associated with a composite measure of unhealthy pregnancy outcomes, especially low birth weight, and that higher exposure is associated with higher risks.
Compared to most prior studies, this study was larger and measured cannabis exposure more accurately, which allowed researchers to distinguish the effects of cannabis itself from those caused by other correlated health conditions. The research publishes online on December 12 in JAMA.
“Cannabis use is not safe,” says Robert Silver, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at U of U Health and last author on the study. “It increases the risk of pregnancy complications. If possible, you shouldn’t use cannabis during pregnancy.”
The researchers were driven to answer this question in part by the contradictory answers that many people encounter when trying to learn about the health impacts of cannabis use. “There’s so much information out there—discussion and social media channels and on the Internet—about cannabis use and pregnancy,” explains Torri Metz, M.D., vice chair of research of obstetrics and gynecology at U of U Health and lead author on the study. “I think it’s hard for patients to understand what they should be worried about, if anything.”
Uncovering new risks
Indeed, some previous studies on the topic found no association between cannabis use and pregnancy complications. One hurdle facing such research, Metz says, is that there are “so many differences between baseline characteristics of people who use and don’t use cannabis during pregnancy. There’s different rates of anxiety and depression.” These differences can also impact pregnancy risks, which makes it challenging to figure out the consequences related specifically to cannabis use.
The large study population, including participants from eight medical centers across the U.S., allowed the researchers to address this issue. Being able to compare pregnancy outcomes for so many participants, 610 of which had detectable levels of cannabis exposure, meant that the researchers could statistically untangle the impacts of cannabis use from many other factors, including pre-existing health conditions, nicotine exposure, and socioeconomic status.
The scientists found that cannabis exposure was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in risk: 26% of cannabis-exposed pregnant people experienced an unhealthy pregnancy outcome, versus 17% of non-exposed pregnant people. Higher levels of cannabis exposure over the course of pregnancy were associated with higher risks.
A distinguishing feature of the study was how the researchers measured cannabis exposure. While other studies had asked participants to report their own cannabis use (which has been shown to underestimate the actual rate of use by two or three times), the scientists measured the levels of a metabolic byproduct of cannabis in participants’ urine samples, which gave more accurate measurements of cannabis exposure.
Open questions
To gauge impacts on pregnancy, the researchers looked at an aggregate measure of negative health outcomes, including low birth weight, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, stillbirth, and medically indicated preterm birth. Of these, the association between cannabis use and low birth weight was the strongest. All of these conditions have been linked to reduced function of the placenta, which supplies the growing baby with oxygen and nutrients.
While this type of study can’t determine why cannabis is associated with negative pregnancy outcomes, previous studies in non-human primates have found that long-term cannabis exposure can interfere with blood supply to the placenta. The correlation Metz and her colleagues observed suggests that cannabis may disrupt the human placenta in a similar way.
Silver adds that the greater risk seen at higher levels of exposure is especially concerning given the high amount of THC found in newer cannabis products—products that were barely starting to become available from 2010 to 2014, when the study data was collected. The health impacts of these more concentrated products remain largely unknown.
The researchers urge people who are considering using cannabis while pregnant to have an open conversation with their doctor. While pregnant people may turn to cannabis to alleviate nausea or anxiety, other remedies have been proven to be safe. “There are many, many reasons people use cannabis,” Silver says. “But there may be alternative therapies that can help mitigate the symptoms.”
Silver emphasizes that continued research on the health impacts of cannabis is urgently needed so that patients can make informed decisions about their health. “As long as humans are interested in using this product,” he says, “we ought to assess health effects both good and bad, as accurately as we can, and provide that information for folks.”
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Media Availability
The lead author, Dr. Torri Metz, has limited availability for interviews. Media with questions are encouraged to attend one of two virtual media sessions:
There will be a media availability on Zoom on Friday December 8, 10am-11am PT/1pm-2pm ET
https://utah.zoom.us/j/98644986861
Meeting ID: 986 4498 6861
There will be a press conference on Zoom on Tuesday, December 12, 12:30-1:30pm PT/3:30pm-4:30pm ET
https://utah.zoom.us/j/94558216749
Meeting ID: 945 5821 6749
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The research publishes as “Cannabis Exposure and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Related to Placental Function” and was carried out in collaboration with researchers from ARUP Laboratories, University of California, Irvine, The Ohio State University, Indiana University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, and University of Pittsburgh.
Support was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences.
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About University of Utah Health
University of Utah Health provides leading-edge and compassionate care for a referral area that encompasses Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and much of Nevada. A hub for health sciences research and education in the region, U of U Health has a $522 million research enterprise and trains the majority of Utah’s physicians, and more than 1,670 scientists and 1,460 health care providers at its Colleges of Health, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Schools of Dentistry and Medicine. With more than 20,000 employees, the system includes 12 community clinics and five hospitals. U of U Health is recognized nationally as a transformative health care system and provider of world-class care.
In a study of more than 9,000 pregnant people from across the U.S., researchers at University of Utah Health found that cannabis exposure during pregnancy is associated with a composite measure of unhealthy pregnancy outcomes, especially low birth weight, and that higher exposure is associated with higher risks.
BYLINE: Mario Boone
Newswise — Rockville, Md. (December 12, 2023)—Lung airway cells of people with alcohol use disorder developed “enhanced inflammation” three days after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and the University of Georgia.
An analysis of gene expression found that uninfected airway cells from people with alcohol use disorder (“AUD”) had mild pro-inflammatory characteristics that were amplified after SARS-CoV-2 infection when compared to cells not exposed to excessive alcohol use (“control”). In addition, control cells infected with the virus showed a protective response not seen in the AUD cells. The findings are published in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. It has been chosen as an APSselect article for December.
To achieve their findings, researchers isolated cells from the inside of the airway of people with and without alcohol use disorder. Next, the cells were cultured to create a model airway epithelium. Gene expression was analyzed by next-generation RNA sequencing to measure the effect of chronic alcohol exposure on airway cells. The research team then infected the cells with SARS-CoV-2 and measured the production of inflammatory factors.
People with alcohol use disorder who also have COVID-19 have higher rates of hospitalization and death. This indicates that chronic alcohol use puts people at risk for increased severity of COVID-19-related illness. By conducting this study, Michael Koval, PhD, of Emory’s Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and his team determined that alcohol abuse causes lung airway cells to over-react to SARS-CoV-2 infection, which may increase the severity of early stages of COVID-19.
Read the full article, “Chronic alcohol use primes bronchial cells for altered inflammatory response and barrier dysfunction during SARS-CoV-2 infection.” It is highlighted as one of this month’s “best of the best” as part of the American Physiological Society’s APSselect program. Read all of this month’s selected research articles.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: To schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact APS Media Relations or call 301.634.7314. Find more research highlights in our Newsroom.
Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.
National Institutes of Health Funding Will Be Used to Prevent Rehospitalizations and Lower Complications from Infections
