Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Name:
College:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 2
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.
behavior, its primary relation to other options, and the impaired control of drinking behavior.
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
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.
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 3
Victims of depression due to alcohol dependence exhibit several symptoms. They feel
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,
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
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
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
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
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
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,
dependents. This problem applies particularly in the dexamethasone suppression test, serotonin,
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
treat alcohol dependence and depression simultaneously have strengthened the need to revisit the
traditional management of comorbid alcohol dependence and major depression more formally.
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY CAUSING DEPRESSION 7
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