Running Head: ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 1

Alcohol dependency causing depression

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ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 2

Alcohol dependency causing depression

Introduction

Extensive research indicates that the comorbidity of alcohol dependence and major

depression occurs at an alarming rate. People take alcohol for many reasons (Boden &

Fergusson, 2011). Some begin at a tender age, seeking to explore illegal activities or maybe

because of peer influence from friends. Others abstain from alcohol activities until they reach the

legal drinking age. Further, one can choose to take few glasses of alcohol while others, especially

college students can take hundreds of shots within few hours (Hasin & Grant, 2013).The risks

associated with taking alcohol vary on a high magnitude depending on the amount of alcohol one

chooses to take. For example, a small woman might find herself quite intoxicated after taking

two glasses of alcohol while a 300-pound linebacker might not even feel the effect of the second

glass of alcohol.

Alcohol dependence syndrome gives the greatest attention to alcohol consumption

behavior, its primary relation to other options, and the impaired control of drinking behavior.

Depression constitutes a particular case in consideration of the relationship between psychology

and alcohol dependence. A distinction should be made between the primary and secondary and

secondary depressive disorder (Boden & Fergusson, 2011). Primary depression exists in the

absence of other significant psychological or physical disorders. Secondary depression may

occur as a result of psychopathologies including alcoholism. Depression cases frequently

appeared in alcoholics across a series of clinical research studies. While depressive symptoms

are common among alcoholics, they appear to be more severe in those who seek treatment.

Female alcoholics are more likely than males to be depressed and to suffer from primary

depression.
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Victims of depression due to alcohol dependence exhibit several symptoms. They feel

drained of energy, problems with forgetfulness, pessimism about future, difficulties in

concentration, feel guilty about things that happened in the past, and inability to sleep at night

(Hasin & Grant, 2013). They also turn anti-social. The individual starts isolating and avoiding

other people. They start having dangerous patterns of alcohol consumption such as binge

drinking. They feel disassociate with the word and like there is a barrier between them and the

other people. They start having low self-esteem and may develop the thought of committing

suicide because they feel life has lacked real meaning or purpose. They always have a sad

nostalgia of the past and have body aches and pains that have no obvious cause.

Alcohol dependent victims have the following alcohol-related behaviors: they tend to

drink alcohol even when their safety or health is compromised. They have difficulty in

performance at work or other situations due to drinking (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). They

become tolerant to alcohol or needing more to get drunk. They develop withdrawal symptoms

when not drinking. These symptoms include elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, shaking,

and in severe cases seizures and hallucinations.

Depressive symptomatology in alcoholics probably has multiple causes ranging from the

toxic effects of the alcohol to the presence of personality disorder which may antedate the use of

alcohol (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). The depressive symptoms, which are present in many

patients during drinking and in the acute withdrawal period, generally clear over time, but some

alcoholics continue to report symptoms of depression over months or year. Unfortunately, there

are no reliable methods to distinguish which depressive symptoms on admission will turn out to

be associated with the major affective disorder. Data on the relationship between depressive

mood and drinking behavior appear to be contradictory. Among manic-depressive patients,

ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 4

periods of heavy drinking tend to occur during mania rather than during depression. Data on the

use and recommendation of antidepressant drugs in the treatment of the alcoholic are not clear.

Recently, it was reported that detoxified alcoholics may metabolize some of the tricyclic

antidepressants so rapidly that plasma levels achieved at usual therapeutic dosage may not be

optimal (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). These data suggest that the future studies on the use of

antidepressants in alcoholic patients should consider the blood level question.

When comparing the symptoms of alcohol dependence and depression, the connection

between the two is not immediately apparent. They seem to be like two different conditions but

in reality, one leads to another (Boden & Fergusson, 2011). A depressed person may turn to

alcohol to feel better while an alcohol dependent person would obviously become depressed.

This relationship means that the two conditions are highly interdependent. A three-year-old study

conducted by the Harvard School of public health found this connection in their participants. The

researchers interviewed approximately 10000 people from different locations about the

symptoms of depression and alcohol dependence over an interval of one year. At the end of the

study, none of the participants was diagnosed with alcohol dependence or depression. The

participants were asked twice, a year apart, if they had experienced any symptom of alcohol

dependence and depression.

The researchers found that those people who exhibited at least some symptoms of

depression during their first interview were more likely to experience some syndromes of

alcoholism by the second interview after a year (Hasin & Grant, 2013).The more the symptoms

of depression a person had, the greater the risk of addiction. Similarly, those participants who

had symptoms of alcohol dependence in the first interview were at a greater danger of being

diagnosed with major depression a year later. In the two cases, women were at a much higher
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 5

risk than men (Boden & Fergusson, 2011). Those results helped to verify that alcohol

dependence leads to depression and that the connection between the two is much stronger in

ladies than in the male. Other studies have shown the similar results. They also show that binge

drinking is responsible for the onset of depression. That is, people who take a lot of alcohol at

once are more likely to feel following symptoms of depression than those who drinks the same

amount, but not at once.

In characterizing men and women with primary and secondary depression, those with

secondary depression were mostly old, married, and have higher social comic status than those

with major depression. Among the women with alcohol dependence, those with concurrently

initiated major depression reported the highest level of daily drinking. Among men with alcohol

dependence, those suffering from secondary depression had the highest rates of regular alcohol

drinking. Treatment design in major depression has been firmly influenced by the notion of

independence of the disorder (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). This influence has been caused by the

high rate of spontaneous recovery of depressive symptoms during the process of treatment for

alcohol dependence. The Harvard University research found that 40% of the victims entering

inpatient alcohol depression treatment had depressive symptoms, but only 5% had clinical levels

of depression after one moth of abstinence (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). This problem has led to

some commentators to recommend that treatment for depression be delayed to provide an

opportunity for remission.

Future studies of depression and its treatment in the alcohol dependence should clarify

the presence of a separately diagnosable affective disorder, level of cognitive function, and

family history of affective illness (Gilman & Abraham, 2009). It should also study careful intake

and outcome histories of alcohol dependence and depressive symptomatology, and assessment of
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 6

life stress and adequacy of social supports. Biological indices that have been investigated in the

affectively ill non-alcoholic subject may be affected by a recent history of alcohol consumption,

thereby limiting their usefulness in studies of depression in recently detoxified alcohol-

dependents. This problem applies particularly in the dexamethasone suppression test, serotonin,

metabolites, and studies of sleep parameters in alcoholics.

Conclusion

Prevalence rates of major depression and alcohol dependence disorders are formidable,

and several reports describe people with both depression and alcohol dependence as clinically

more severely ill and harder to keep well than those who are alcohol-dependent or are depressed.

In the recent past, results from well-controlled trials have shown that antidepressants medications

can reduce symptoms of depression in some people who suffer from both alcohol dependence

and depression. Both alcohol dependence and major depression carry a significant risk for the

development of each other. The severity of alcohol dependence is associated with severity of

depression. Moreover, alcohol dependence prolongs the course of depression, and continued

depression during its absence is a significant risk factor for relapse of heavy alcohol drinking.

Therefore, logic dictates that both disorders be identified early and managed aggressively and

concurrently. Integrated psychological outpatient intervention programs and the capability to

treat alcohol dependence and depression simultaneously have strengthened the need to revisit the

traditional management of comorbid alcohol dependence and major depression more formally.
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References

Boden, J. M., & Fergusson, D. M. (2011). Alcohol and depression. Addiction,106(5), 906-914.

Gilman, S. E., & Abraham, H. D. (2009). A longitudinal study of the order of onset of alcohol

dependence and major depression. Drug and alcohol dependence, 63(3), 277-286.

Hasin, D. S., & Grant, B. F. (2013). Major depression in 6050 former drinkers: association with

past alcohol dependence. Archives of general psychiatry, 59(9), 794-800.