Higher temperatures may contribute to alcohol and drug disorders - study

High temperatures cause an increase in drug and alcohol related hospital visits and the problem may be worsening due climate change, according to a new study from Columbia University researchers.

“We saw that during periods of higher temperatures, there was a corresponding increase in hospital visits related to alcohol and substance use, which also brings attention to some less obvious potential consequences of climate change,” said first study author Robbie Parks, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City.

The study noted an increasing trend of heavy drinking and alcohol-related deaths in the United States in recent decades. The study also noted that deaths due to drug overdose had increased by more than five times in the past two decades. 

The researchers examined the relationship between temperature and hospital visits related to alcohol and various other drugs. They compiled data from more than 670,000 alcohol-related hospital visits and more than 720,000 drug-related hospital visits over a period of 20 years in New York. 

They compiled a comprehensive record of daily temperatures and relative humidity, and used a statistical model which compared days with high temperatures to days with lower temperatures.

High temperatures and substance abuse 

The higher the temperature on a particular day, the more hospital visits for alcohol-related disorders took place.

Higher temperatures also resulted in more hospital visits for users of cannabis, cocaine, opioids and sedatives, but only up to a limit of 65.8 degrees Fahrenheit. This cap could be because people are less likely to go outdoors over a certain temperate, the study authors suggested.

The authors noted that the study may actually underestimate the link between increased temperatures and substance abuse disorders, as the most severe disorders may have resulted in deaths before a hospital visit was possible. 

There are steps that publish health officials could take to decrease the number of alcohol and drug related emergencies, such as awareness campaigns about the effects of rising temperatures on substance use. 

“Public health interventions that broadly target alcohol and substance disorders in warmer weather - for example, targeted messaging on the risks of their consumption during warmer weather - should be a public health priority,” said senior study author Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia.