Whether it’s sedatives, painkillers or stimulants: the psychological stress caused by the pandemic has dramatically increased the intake of medication. This is the result of the Gallup study “Doping in everyday life” by the Anton Proksch Institute in Vienna, in which a thousand Austrians were first interviewed by telephone and then more online. Here the results:
- One in three respondents feels psychologically stressed during the pandemic.
- The intake of stimulants increases by a factor of four in Austrians who are exposed to it.
- Irregular working hours increase the use of tranquilizers.
- People with a migration background are clearly overrepresented in the use of painkillers.
- So-called “everyday doping” is becoming a mass phenomenon: caffeine and alcohol are particularly widespread.
stress from the job
Especially in stressful situations, a desired state should be achieved through everyday doping. Causes of the stress are professional context (approx. 70 percent), family and partnership (approx. 40 percent) and leisure time (approx. 30 percent). People use stimulating substances to reach their potential. Taking stimulants is almost twice as common among adolescents and young adults up to the age of 30 as among older people. “People with mental stress take painkillers about twice as often as those who do not experience themselves as mentally stressed. A similar result is seen with tranquilizers and sleeping pills,” says Wolfgang Preinsperger, medical director at the Anton Proksch Institute addiction clinic. Those with frequently changing work schedules report taking benzodiazepines almost twice as often as those with regular schedules (65 percent versus 38 percent).
Almost every Austrian consumes caffeinated beverages and foods. Almost half of those surveyed swallow dietary supplements, 41 percent said they had taken painkillers in the last year. One in four smokes at least occasionally, almost ten percent took sedatives and one percent used stimulants. Women use substances primarily to increase performance and for their well-being; in men, the substances mentioned are used more as medication against stress. (ie)
Source: Nachrichten
