INFORMACIONES PSIQUIÁTRICAS 243

24 Informaciones Psiquiátricas 2021 - n.º 243 stage pandemic crisis should be viewed in the long term rather than the short-term. Besides, it should be further evaluated whether or not these results (mostly questionnaire data surveys) match empirical data such as the alcoholic beverage sales in each case. In order to make sense of these competing predictions regarding the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on the level and patterns of alcohol consumption, Rehm and his colleagues concluded that for the immediate future, the prevailing scenario will likely be one that predicts a level of lower consumption; contrarily, while the distress experienced may become more relevant in the medium and longer term future, the scenario predicting an increase in consumption for some populations, particularly men, would be more likely (4). Depending on how this situation will unfold, we could again forecast two somehow opposite schemes regarding resource demands for patients with alcohol dependence (AD) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the medium and long term: a) Reinforcement of specialized drug addiction centres: alcohol consumption in the general population will decrease for most cases albeit for an unknown amount of people the process of becoming addicted will, unfortunately, start to set off. Instead of the general population, we should rather focus our attention to those more vulnerable, such as people with pre-existing alcohol disorders or other risk factors, such as the presence of other psychiatric disorders, etc.; in fact, an increment of alcohol consumption has been reported for some patients already during the lockdown (5). b) Strengthening of primary care centres: assuming an increase in alcohol consumption in the adult population, the psychiatric emergency units and especially the primary care centres are those that will receive an increase in the demand for treatment and also those that should receive more help, bearing in mind that primary health care holds the access to the mental health system for the vast majority of the population in Europe, and therefore also in our context. (6). Before this outbreak, alcohol dependence (AD) was already prevalent among patients in European primary health care settings (8.7 %, 95 % confidence interval (CI): 8.1-9.3 %), although treatment rates were low (22.3 % of all AD cases, 95 % CI: 19.4-25.2 %) (7). Besides, despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of alcohol screening and brief advice to reduce heavy drinking, implementation in primary healthcare remains limited. Whether our hypothesis becomes a reality or not, we would agree that the timing of the effects needs to be considered to ensure the continued access to health care services during and after the pandemic. Maybe it would be more challenging for all the people suffering drug addictions, especially alcohol use disorder. One fundamental health policy issue will be how we manage our limited resources during the medium and longer term of the COVID-19 pandemic. From our understanding, primary care centres should be the first reinforced. Mr C. Barcons / Dr. M. Sánchez / Mr O. Cunillera / Mr J. Matalí / Dr. M. Guitart / Mrs H. Gonzalez-Casals