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(CNN) -
The need for liver transplants due to heavy alcohol consumption skyrocketed during the pandemic, researchers reported Tuesday.
The researchers found that the number of people who underwent a liver transplant or were placed on a waiting list due to alcoholic hepatitis was 50% higher than predicted based on pre-pandemic trends.
With alcoholic hepatitis, the liver stops processing alcohol and instead creates highly toxic chemicals that trigger inflammation.
Inflammation can kill healthy liver cells, creating irreversible liver damage that can force the patient to undergo a liver transplant to survive.
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Alcoholic hepatitis is a condition that often develops after years of binge drinking, but it can also develop after a short period of binge drinking.
Scientists do not yet know why some people develop this condition and others do not.
For this study, researchers at the University of Michigan compared the actual number of new people on the U.S. organ transplant list from March 2020 to January 2021 with projected numbers that were based on pre-pandemic data.
They also analyzed national alcohol retail sales records between January 2016 and 2021.
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Results published in JAMA Network Open showed a positive correlation between the increase in the number of people on the waiting list for a liver due to alcoholic hepatitis and the increase in alcohol retail sales during the pandemic.
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A survey released Monday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that American adults had claimed they drank roughly the same amount of alcohol during the pandemic, at least in the fourth quarter of 2020. Sales figures may suggest otherwise.
Researchers in this study noted that alcohol sales increased dramatically beginning in March 2020 and remained at roughly the same high level for the remainder of the year.
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From March 2020 to January 2021, researchers saw 51,488 more people were placed on a waiting list for a liver and 32,320 liver transplants were performed due to alcoholic hepatitis. The number of people who needed a liver transplant for any reason other than alcoholic hepatitis stayed about the same.
"While we cannot confirm causation, this disproportionate increase in association with increased alcohol sales may indicate a relationship to known increases in alcohol misuse during COVID-19," the researchers wrote.
"This study provides evidence of an alarming rise in (alcoholic hepatitis) associated with increased alcohol misuse during COVID-19 and highlights the need for public health interventions around binge drinking."
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