By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

It’s no secret that alcohol consumption has risen sharply during the coronavirus pandemic, as more people are drinking to cope with anxiety, loneliness, stress and boredom. According to recent research published in JAMA Network Open, alcohol sales rose 54% in the first weeks of the pandemic, and there was a significant increase in heavy drinking among women.

Excessive alcohol use may worsen mental and physical health problems, and it is particularly problematic for people with chronic pain, who are often prescribed medications that shouldn’t be taken with alcohol.

Another reason to reduce drinking is that it could improve your pain symptoms, according to a recent study of U.S. military veterans published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study followed about 7,000 veterans who took annual surveys between 2003 and 2015 that included questions about their mental health and alcohol and substance use.

Researchers identified about 1,500 veterans who reported heavy drinking in at least one survey, and then compared those who reduced their alcohol consumption to those who did not.

The veterans who reduced their drinking were more likely to have improved pain symptoms two years later, and had higher odds of stopping smoking, cannabis, or cocaine use. There was no noticeable improvement in their depression and anxiety.

“We found some evidence for improvement of pain interference symptoms and substance use after reducing drinking among US veterans with unhealthy alcohol use, but confidence intervals were wide,” wrote lead researcher Ellen Caniglia, an epidemiologist in the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.

Caniglia and her colleagues noted that the timing of alcohol reduction relative to improvement in pain and other conditions was often unknown, so it cannot be concluded that less drinking caused the improvement or vice versa.

The veterans included in the study were not representative of the overall population; nearly half had moderate to severe chronic pain, more than half had anxiety, a third had depression, and half were HIV-positive. More than two-thirds were tobacco smokers, a third reported cannabis use, and another third reported cocaine use.

That said, researchers say their findings support efforts to reduce drinking in veterans with unhealthy alcohol use, and suggest that reduced drinking is unlikely to worsen pain symptoms or increase the abuse of other substances.

Some previous studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption may actually improve pain symptoms. A 2015 survey of over 2,200 people with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions found that drinkers reported significantly less disability than teetotalers.

And a 2017 analysis published in the Journal of Pain found “robust evidence” that a few drinks can produce a “moderate to large reduction in pain intensity.”

How much is too much? According to the Mayo Clinic, moderate alcohol consumption for healthy adults means one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than age 65, and two drinks a day for men age 65 and younger.