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Background: Several scholars hypothesize that one of the most negative impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis would concern the increase of prevalence and severity of both substances and behavioral addiction. Despite the general concerns about the increase of prevalence and severity of addictions related to the COVID-19 emergency, few data are still available. Thus, the main aim of this study was to investigate the association between COVID-19 related distress and: (i) alcohol problems, (ii) social media addiction (SMA) symptoms, (iii) food addiction (FA) symptoms.Methods: A national online-survey was carried out during the Italian lockdown (i.e., 9 March 2020–4 May 2020). In the current study, 1,519 participants (365 men and 1,154 women, mean age: 28.49 ± 10.89 years) were included. The survey included socio-demographic related items (e.g., age, sex, residential regions, education level, civil status, tobacco use, etc.), as well as ad-hoc developed questions aimed to investigate COVID-19 related variables (e.g., isolation/quarantine, personal diagnosis to COVID-19, friends or relatives with COVID-19 diagnosis, etc.). Participants also completed the following self-report measures in order to investigate: the psychological impact of COVID-19, alcohol problems, SMA symptoms, FA symptoms, and impulsivity.Results: The psychological impact of COVID-19 was independently associated with alcohol problems (β = 0.058, p = 0.043), SMA symptoms (β = 0.259, p < 0.001), and FA symptoms (β = 0.150, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Taken together, our results seem to confirm the general concerns about the negative impacts of the COVID-19 emergency on addictive behaviors, suggesting that this issue should be carefully monitored.

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Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that alexithymia is characterized by functional alterations in different brain areas [e.g., posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)], during emotional/social tasks. However, only few data are available about alexithymic cortical networking features during resting state (RS). We have investigated the modifications of electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectra and EEG functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) in subjects with alexithymia. Eighteen subjects with alexithymia and eighteen subjects without alexithymia matched for age and gender were enrolled. EEG was recorded during 5 min of RS. EEG analyses were conducted by means of the exact Low Resolution Electric Tomography software (eLORETA). Compared to controls, alexithymic subjects showed a decrease of alpha power in the right PCC. In the connectivity analysis, compared to controls, alexithymic subjects showed a decrease of alpha connectivity between: (i) right anterior cingulate cortex and right PCC, (ii) right frontal lobe and right PCC, and (iii) right parietal lobe and right temporal lobe. Finally, mediation models showed that the association between alexithymia and EEG connectivity values was directed and was not mediated by psychopathology severity. Taken together, our results could reflect the neurophysiological substrate of some core features of alexithymia, such as the impairment in emotional awareness.