Changes in Substance Use Following COVID-19: Harnessing Digital Phenotyping

National Institute On Drug Abuse

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Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is a major global and national health emergencyand although it should be unnecessary to point that out, there are places where it is not yet believed, making the emergency all the more dire. Across the US, Covid-19 is disproportionately impacting communities of color, people with lower incomes, and people who lack stable housing. The Covid-19 pandemic is also colliding with a preexisting and ongoing pandemic: substance use disorders (SUDs). People with SUDs are particularly vulnerable to the health, social, and economic impacts of Covid-19and the number of people with SUDs is likely to increase with the economic and psychological stress of Covid-19. The aims of this project are to 1) investigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on drug use, drug-related behaviors, and consequences of drug use, in people with and without SUDs at the start of the study; 2) investigate bidirectional effects between the Covid-19 pandemic and access/adherence to treatment, in people who have or develop SUDs; and 3) improve methodology for detection of daily-life behavioral markers of (a) movement patterns, (b) social interactions, support, and distancing, (c) substance use, (d) resilience and wellbeing, and (e) psychological problems (including pandemic-specific problems).