New study suggests alcohol-related deaths went up around 24 per cent in the first two years of the pandemic
Feb 03, 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in Dr. Peter Butt’s retirement plans. Not because of an influx in patients infected with the new virus — but because he pivoted to an inpatient addiction medicine consulting service, and so many more people needed his help with alcohol use.
“What we saw was … potentially a doubling of the number of people coming in needing alcohol withdrawal management or other services directly attributable to their alcohol use,” said Butt, a family physician who also co-chaired Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health.
Now, a new study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests not only were more people consuming more alcohol — there were more hospitalizations and deaths because of it.
Between April 2020 and December 2022, deaths fully attributable to alcohol were up about 18 per cent, while hospitalizations were up about eight per cent. The increases were highest in the first two years of the pandemic, with deaths up about 24 per cent, and hospitalizations about 14 per cent. That’s 1,596 more deaths and 7,142 more hospitalizations that may not have happened if not for alcohol consumption.