IT is one of the ironies of the pandemic that alcohol deaths increased sharply in a year when overall intake actually reduced for the third consecutive year.
The average Scottish adult consumed the equivalent of 9.4 litres of pure alcohol, compared to 9.9 litres in 2019.
It was the largest year-on-year decrease on record.
So why did deaths rise by 17 per cent? Partly, because intake was unequal.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said the increase was "devastating to see", particularly just a year after minimum pricing was credited with helping to turn the tide.
"The pandemic threatens to undermine this progress," added Ms Douglas.
"Many people, particularly heavier drinkers, have reported that they have increased their drinking during the last 18 months."
By comparison, many moderate drinkers reduced their intake or gave up altogether.
The increase in mortality was disproportionately clustered around periods of lockdown, and overwhelmingly male: there were 826 alcohol-specific deaths among men in 2020, compared to 659 in 2019.
Among women, there were just three extra deaths.
The Scottish Government is under pressure to increase minimum pricing from 50 to 65 pence per unit, but SHAAP (Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems) director, Elinor Jayne, said other innovative measures are also needed.
She said: "Even if there are no more lockdowns, if the people adversely affected by them continue drinking in this way we're going to see this level of harm for quite some time.
"Increasingly, there are models elsewhere across the world where alcohol is sold only in specific shops, which are sometimes government-owned or licensed.
"It's not part of your weekly shop, it's not in every corner shop that you pop into.
"That is a cultural shift but something that we'd be keen to see the Government at least starting to explore in Scotland because then alcohol becomes less of a normal everyday commodity."
At face value, the suicide figures also seem surprising - but if anything they only underline how complex an issue suicide is.
National and regional crises, such as war or natural disasters, have previously been associated with a decline in suicide attributed to the "pulling together" effect.
READ MORE: Scotland to launch first bereavement service for families affected by suicide
Notably the only period where suicides were significantly up in Scotland during 2020 was in the period from June to September, when restrictions eased and that sense of solidarity may have been lost.
According to the Scottish Government's own mental health tracker, rates of suicidal ideation increased during this period.
However, experts caution against reading too much into one year's data "in isolation".
The overall trend for suicides since 2015 has been upwards, based on rolling five-year averages, and that continues to be the case.
Rose Fitzpatrick, chair of the National Suicide Prevention Action Group charged with driving forward delivery of the Scottish Government's suicide prevention action plan, said unravelling why people reach crisis is key.
She said: "[Survivors] will all tell you that their individual reasons for finding themselves in that situation are very complicated and there's rarely one single reason.
"What we can say is that the pandemic and the restrictions changing over time have added another layer of complexity."
READ MORE: Suicides fells during pandemic - but rose when Scotland came out of lockdown
Until now, only suicides where people had recent contact with the police or NHS were investigated, but new pilot schemes launching in Aberdeen, Borders, and Dumfries and Galloway are set to probe all probable suicides.
Ms Fitzpatrick said: "Families tell us they want to understand better what happened to their loved one in the period leading up to their death, and they want whatever is learnt to be shared to prevent other deaths.
"These pilots are going to be really important for that."
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