Depression

Alcohol does not cause depression: Study

Researchers also debunk the view that mild to moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of depression.

Contrary to popular belief, alcohol does not cause depression, Australian scientists have found.

Until now it was believed that alcohol caused people to become depressed, particularly if consumed at excessive levels, according to Professor Osvaldo Almeida, from The University of Western Australia.

“Even one of the diagnoses we have for depressive disorders – Substance Induced Mood Disorder – is a diagnosis where alcohol plays a role,” Almeida said.

“However, because of the observational nature of the association between alcohol and depression, and the risk of confounding and bias that comes with observational studies, it is difficult to be entirely certain that the relationship is causal.

“For example, people who drink too much may also smoke, have poor diets and other diseases that could explain the excess number of people with depression among heavy drinkers,” he said.

Almeida and fellow researchers with the Health in Men Study (HIMS), including 12,201 men aged 65-83 when recruited in 1996, decided to search for a causal link via physiological pathways instead: specifically the genetic polymorphism, or mutation, most closely associated with alcohol metabolism.

“We now know that certain genetic variations affect the amount of alcohol people consume. There is one particular genetic variation that affects the enzyme responsible for the metabolism of alcohol,” Almeida said.

“This variation produces an enzyme that is up to 80 times less competent at breaking down alcohol. Consequently, people who carry this variation are much less tolerant to alcohol. In fact, there is now evidence that alcohol-related disorders are very uncommon in this group.

“Now, if alcohol causes depression, then a genetic variation that reduces alcohol use and alcohol-related disorders, should reduce the risk of depression.

“The great advantage of looking at the gene is that this association is not confounded by any other factors – people are born like that,” he said.

The researchers analysed the triangular association between the genetic mutation, alcohol and depression in 3,873 elderly male participants of the study, using data collected over three to eight years.

“We found (as expected) that this particular genetic variant was associated with reduced alcohol use, but it had no association with depression whatsoever,” Almeida said.

“The conclusion is that alcohol use neither causes nor prevents depression in older men. Our results also debunk the view that mild to moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of depression,” he added.

 

Glass of wine a day may lower depression risk

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Those who drank moderate amounts of wine each week were less likely to suffer from depression.

Drinking wine in moderation may be associated with a lower risk of developing depression, a new study has claimed.

Moderate amounts of alcohol consumed may have similar protective effects on depression to those that have been observed for coronary heart disease, researchers said.

Few studies have looked at the relationship between mental health and moderate alcohol intake.

Researchers report on a cohort study that followed over 5,500 light-to-moderate drinkers for up to seven years. The results show an inverse relationship between alcohol intake and incidence of depression.
The study participants were aged between 55 and 80 years old, and had never suffered from depression or had alcohol-related problems when the study started.

Their alcohol consumption, mental health and lifestyles were followed for up to seven years through yearly visits, repeated medical exams, interviews with dietitians and questionnaires.

The main alcoholic beverage drunk by the study participants was wine. When analysed, it was shown that those who drank moderate amounts of wine each week were less likely to suffer from depression.

The lowest rates of depression were seen in the group of individuals who drank two to seven small glasses of wine per week. These results remained significant even when the group adjusted them for lifestyle and social factors, such as smoking, diet and marital status.

“Lower amounts of alcohol intake might exert protection in a similar way to what has been observed for coronary heart disease. In fact, it is believed that depression and coronary heart disease share some common disease mechanisms,” Professor Miguel A Martinez-Gonzalez, from the University of Navarra (Spain), senior author of the paper, said.

Previous studies have indicated that non-alcoholic compounds in the wine, such as resveratrol and other phenolic compounds may have protective effects on certain areas of the brain.

The study was published in the journal BMC Medicine.